3 Untrue Myths About Women in STEM
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This article debunks 3 common myths about women in STEM fields. The first myth is that women have to act like men to fit in. The second is that women are not tough enough for leadership roles. The third myth is that women cannot be coders, scientists or capable based on their appearance. The article aims to dispel untrue stereotypes about women in STEM.
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3 Untrue Myths About Women in STEM
- 13. 3 Totally Untrue Myths About Being a Woman in STEM By Sage Franch Yes, a real computer programmer
- 14. 1. You have to be “one of the guys” to fit in
- 15. 2. Girls aren’t tough enough for leadership roles
- 16. 3. “You don’t look like a coder/scientist/capable human being!”
Editor's Notes
- Good morning! My name is Sage and I am a Content Developer at Microsoft, a fourth year computer science student at Dalhousie University, and the creator of TrendyTechie.ca. We’re all here in this room today because we share a common passion: innovation. All the STEM fields, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, have their core roots in innovation and discovery. As scientists, inventors and technologists, we are in the amazing position of being able to use our skills and our passions to create the future that we want to live in. I have been fortunate enough to be able to find a career that I truly love and that makes me feel like I really have the opportunity to be innovative. So for the next twenty minutes I’m going to share with you the top five lessons I’ve learned that will help you turn your passion into your career.
- The very first step is to find your spark. Your spark is the root of your passion. It’s not just something you’re interested in, it’s something that ignites a fire in your gut and makes the butterflies in your stomach come alive. The most important step in the pursuit of a passion is listening to your gut when it tells you, “THIS is what I’m meant to do.”
- Now I’m not saying it’s easy to find your spark! I was the child with a thousand interests. When I was a kid my parents encouraged me to try anything and everything I wanted to, which in all honestly is probably the reason I can handle full time school and full time work simultaneously. And as I got older, every activity I tried at some point became “the thing” I thought I would do for the rest of my life. I played the drums, did chemistry experiments with my dad, sang and wrote songs, studied martial arts for nine years, did musical theatre and dance, and even had a business where I made little animals out of beads and sold them to my friends’ parents who took pity on me.
- By the time I reached high school I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to be the next Taylor Swift or the female Jackie Chan, and I had decided that I would be an animator and a business person. My plan was to learn computer graphics and animation, get a job at Pixar, and somehow work my way up the ranks until I owned the company. No big deal, right? So in the summer after grade ten I found myself at the University of Pennsylvania studying computer graphics at their Summer Academy of Applied Science and Technology. At this camp we spent four weeks in Philadelphia learning how to model and rig characters, and I was pretty happy with my potential to take over Pixar. I thought, if I can stare at this fairy for seven hours straight just trying to make her wings transparent, I’m pretty sure I have the patience to do this for the rest of my life. But then something happened that changed my life.
- I discovered fire. Okay I didn’t actually discover fire, but I like to refer to this story as my Caveman Moment, because the excitement I felt was so primal it was like I had just witnessed the first bonfire. During a work period one day the teacher pulled up some code he had written and explained that it was a particle generator. When he hit run, a realistic animation of fire burst to life on the screen, made entirely from code. Seeing the words transform into living, moving, organic-looking fire was my first glimpse at the amazing possibilities of programming, and in that moment I knew, THAT’s what I want to do. Not the purely visual graphics I was doing before, I wanted to learn how to create with code. Source: http://astralax.com/articles/inflames
- So when I went back to school that fall, I took my first ever computer science class. I still remember the feeling when my first program worked, I felt like I was learning real magic. In reality, this was what it really looked like:
- And I didn’t even make the turtle, I just made it move around! But still I felt like this: Source: http://blogs.artinsoft.net/
- And that was because, even though what I was doing was really not that impressive, I could feel that the spark had lit the passion in my core and it was not going to be put out easily.
- Now once you’ve found your passion you have to pursue it, and pursue it relentlessly. I went to an all-girls private high school, so my classes were always small, and that first course only had 11 students in it. After that first computer science course there were six of us who were excited to go on to the 12th grade course and learn more about computing. But when we came back to school that last fall, we were told that they were no longer offering the course because they needed at least 10 students for it to be financially justifiable. With the help of my parents who are forever fighting in my corner, I tried every avenue to get the school to give me a way to learn computer science. I tried to take it at the boys’ school down the road, because of course they had programming classes, but that idea was shut down. Well what about an online class? Plenty of universities offer CS courses, I could take it online and get high school credit for it. Not allowed. We tried five or six different suggestions before we ran out of options, and none of them were acceptable.
- So I was at a crossroads. I was applying for universities and I had to decide whether I wanted to take a leap and study computer science at the university level, or play it safe and study business like I had thought before.
- I decided to trust the spark and chase down my passion for programming, and I wound up at Dalhousie studying computer science. And I am so glad I did.
- When I got to Dal I found myself in an entirely different world. I went from being around girls 100% of the time to being one of around 10% of women at Dal Computer Science. Quite often I was one of just a few females in a room of over a hundred students. And as time went on, I found myself more and more often being the only girl in the room, because my fellow female classmates were dropping out, either of CS or of school entirely. I wanted to know WHY. So I asked them! And they came back with a bunch of reasons, so many of which stemmed back to the gender issue. Now I want to tell you that stereotypes are bogus and totally untrue. And what better way to display bogus, untrue facts… http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maya-mathias/mad-men-om-is-where-the-h_b_7419056.html
- Than with a Buzzfeed list! I present to you, 3 Totally Untrue Myths About Being a Woman in STEM.
- http://giphy.com/gifs/disney-mulan-B0XEhdoeRleTe
- http://giphy.com/gifs/jennifer-lawrence-emma-stone-girl-code-eBl33bWVXpxvO
- http://giphy.com/gifs/rage-nerd-W50xKz9RM5FPa
- Now my reaction to all of these myths, and I’m sure you’re with me on this, is YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME. But the truth is that these myths exist for a reason: there are people out there who believe them. So it’s up to those of us who don’t believe them and who aren’t governed by them to share the truth, share the positive stories, and help make this world more welcoming for more diverse groups of people. http://giphy.com/gifs/harry-potter-hermione-side-eye-xSS0vcjoQM8KY
- Which brings me to the next lesson: find your platform.
- My platform is Trendy Techie. I started Trendy Techie four years ago after a particularly frustrating moment when a man told me I didn’t need a powerful computer because I was too pretty to code. When I got home that night I went online to try to find a role model that was telling the stories I wanted to hear, about what it’s like to be a young woman working in tech, who doesn’t try to fit in with the guys and actively fights the stereotypes we face. I didn’t find anyone who fit the bill, so I decided to tell those stories myself.
- Now, your platform doesn’t need to be a blog, it can be anything you want it to be. It can be your lab, your workbench, your research, your volunteer work, anything that you do to deliberately share your impact. http://www.iium.edu.my/solpinar/
- Now my platform includes my work at Microsoft. As a content developer on the Learning Experiences team, I create courses that reach thousands of developers all around the world on edX.org and Microsoft Virtual Academy. Now not only do I get to code in my job, I get to teach other people to code and share in their own spark moments. Working at Microsoft is like being part of a 100,000-person team all working towards the same goals. It may seem crazy that a body of 100,000 people can feel close-knit, but it does. And that’s another thing I love about the tech world, it is a real community, and community is key to turning your passion into your career.
- I would not be where I am today without my community of allies. Allies are mentors, teachers, teammates, role models, and all those great people who invest in your success and help you go far.
- This is one of my greatest allies, Susan Ibach. Susan is a Technical Evangelist at Microsoft Canada, and three years ago she brought me into the Microsoft Student Partner program. Microsoft Student Partners are techie students who represent Microsoft on their campuses by hosting events and workshops and demonstrating Microsoft’s latest technology. I was an MSP for four months before I got hired as a co-op student on Susan’s team, where I worked for a full year as a Technical Evangelist. Throughout my internships at Microsoft, there were key allies who helped me achieve my goals. Those goals included speaking at my first conference, hosting a hackathon in Vancouver, and teaching my first course, which you see here. I had another mentor, Vincent, who brought me to Seattle and let me job shadow him for a week. Every step of the way, allies are important.
- There are thousands of ways to find allies, and I encourage you all to go out and find women in your industry to mentor you. Here I’ve listed just a few of my favourite organizations for youth and girls. If any of these interest you, I highly recommend reaching out! It’s important to remember that every successful woman started right where you are. As one of the greatest philosophers of our time said, “started from the bottom, now we here.” They all understand what it’s like to be in your shoes, and they likely had mentors of their own helping them reach their goals, so odds are they’ll be more than happy to help you reach yours.
- Which brings us to the last lesson in turning your passion into your career, and this is the most important lesson I’ve ever learned about goal setting. A plan without a timeframe is just a dream. But a plan with a timeframe, now that’s a goal. For example, saying “I’m going to get into NASA,” that’s a dream. But saying “I’m going to get into the NASA summer program next year,” now that’s a goal.
- So I want you all to close your eyes and set a goal. It can be big or small, as long as it has a timeframe. I’ll give you a minute, and I’m going to do it too. <PAUSE/> Did you do it? My goal is to release two Windows 10 courses this summer, one on June 1st and the other on July 1st. You don’t have to share your goals with others if you don’t want to, but if you share your goals with your allies, they can help you get there.
- So with that, I’m going to leave you with my two favourite quotes. The first is by Henry Ford. “Whether you think you can or can’t, you’re right.” If you tell yourself you can’t do something, you’re not even giving yourself the chance to try. But if you tell yourself you can, over and over and over again, you eventually will do it.
- And finally, my all-time favourite by Alan Kay, “The best way to predict the future, is to invent it.” Thank you.
- http://giphy.com/gifs/funny-dancing-girl-13RuRwuJ00GAiA