To be a bit cynical about the girls in STEM push?

[StormBringers]

It feels a bit like the ‘you can have it all!’ That my mum heard, wow you can do work! When the reality meant burnout for many women, still doing the housework and kids in most families/ culturally being expected to on top of ft work. Girls with good grades are being directed to STEM, riding on the guilt of all those tragedies of women who gave up on maths and science despite their capabilities.

I see lots of girls excelling in STEM, but I’m not hearing about the family friendly work environment that awaits them. It still seems to be a male advantage in the work place (well unless you make the perfectly valid choice to focus on career instead of children). Surely if we want women in STEM it’s not about targeting kS2 with clubs, it’s about changing the work place and legislating and supporting women to work and excel in STEM in a way that allows them realistic chances to also chose children?

It feels like we’re currently evangelising STEM to girls, telling them they can do anything and pouring them into a broken receptacle they’ll probably leave. Do we have too few women because they don’t follow the academic paths? Or because the workplace presents barriers. I’m dwelling from watching my eldest flounder post Maths phd ... something that I’ve never seen her do before.

Also, we seem to be forgetting debate, creativity etc in schools and the place for philosophy.

Aibu to be getting sick of it lately?

Don't forget that a STEM degree will open up opportunities for non-STEM careers too. Banking, for example.

Engineering is no more nor no less family-friendly than law or medicine which have no problem attracting female students.

Academia is a bit of a disaster in the early years for family life regardless of the school you are in.

The reason there is (and needs to be) an overt push to get girls into STEM is because our society is pushing them away from it implicitly and uncosciously through gender bias.

STEM or not STEM is a different question from whether or not women can have a high level career and a family.

The reason there is (and needs to be) an overt push to get girls into STEM is because our society is pushing them away from it implicitly and uncosciously through gender bias.

I disagree! I have known, over decades, so many girls/women who have been pushed/coerced into STEM degrees and careers who are bitter about the advice they received.