Exploring the Gender Gap in S.T.E.M.
What is a Severn Fellow?
A Severn fellow is a senior who spends their year developing a project that explores a passion outside of the offered curriculum.
Caroline Krall and Annie Bennett's Severn Fellows' Project
Caroline and Annie are making a short documentary about the causes, realities, and effects of the modern divide between men and women in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
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"With men you're expected to do well and get the support, but for females, you have to sacrifice something in a different way from men... I think it's very important for other woman to see that I have had success." - May-Britt Moser, neurologist and winner of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Inspiration |
Findings |
When brainstorming for this project, we knew that we wanted to explore a topic that would combine each of our interests in social justice and STEM. Annie's passions for gender equity perfectly complimented Caroline's love for engineering. Thus, the documentary approach was discovered.
ApproachTo get a better understanding of the complexity of this issue, Annie and Caroline decided that they would set up a series of interviews with women across multiple careers in STEM, each from different backgrounds, to ask questions about their personal experiences in the field and thoughts they have on the gender gap.
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Women working in STEM are primarily one of few women in any workspace, especially if they are of color. The cyclical effects of the STEM gap are detrimental to society and its pervasive wage gap. As less women enter STEM fields, they are given less lucrative salaries. Since they are rarely in power positions, sexual harassment and assault are more common. This gap is even more powerful in countries where girls struggle to receive an education.
SurprisesOur interviewees experienced a lot less overt sexism than expected. Most of the discrimination was polite and subvert. Based on our interviews, it also seems as if most discrimination women face comes from a younger age and is more ingrained in society.
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