As the mother of four-year old daugther, this infographic from EngineeringDegree.net left me troubled.
While studies show girls have higher IQs and earn higher grades in math and science than boys, they lose confidence in their teens.
The percentage of girls who feel confident about themselves dropped from 72 percent in 6th grade to 55 percent in 10th grade. It’s freightening to me that almost half of all tenth grade girls lack self-esteem.
When girls are asked to indicate their gender prior to a test, it results in a score 20 percent lower than when they’re not reminded they are female.
It’s hard to say how all of this affects what women end up studying, but in a room of 25 engineers, only three will be women.
As the daughter of an engineer who was told I could “be anything I wanted” growing up, I’m wondering how we can ensure that the next generation of young women have more confidence in their abilities? Any advice is welcome.
