STEM: An Investment in a New Generation of Women Leaders

By Senator Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh, 23rd Senate District

In a year of COVID-19, we’ve learned how fundamental science is to our lives.

Did you know, Jennifer Doudna’s and Emmanuelle Charpentier’s 2012 discovery of CRISPR gene-editing technology is a large part of what enabled scientists to develop vaccines for COVID-19 so quickly.  For their important contributions to the world, the two received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in October 2020.

It’s dispiriting that even though women and girls make up half of the world’s population—and, therefore, half of its potential—the percentage of women in Science, Technology, Engineering, Math (STEM) fields is low. We must ensure we provide an environment where our girls and young women feel encouraged to explore STEM careers.

According to UNESCO, less than 30% of researchers worldwide are women, and only around 30% of female students in higher education select STEM-related fields.  U.S. Census Bureau data reveals that while women make up nearly one-half of the working population, they represent only 26% of the STEM workforce.  That is a lot of untapped potential!

We need to encourage more women and girls to pursue STEM fields because who knows who the next Marie Curie (two-time Nobel Prize winner who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity) or Sally Ride (first American woman in space) will be.

STEM careers represent some of the highest-paying positions in any field, thereby providing desirable career opportunities and real pathways out of poverty. In fact, women in STEM professions earn one-third more than women in non-STEM-related occupations.

In addition, employment opportunities in science and engineering-related fields have been growing faster than all other occupations over the past decade.  Here in California, our state’s economic success is becoming ever more reliant on STEM industries.

Preparation for a STEM career can begin as early as high school with courses in biology, chemistry, physics, statistics, calculus, and psychology.  Because of teachers, administrators, and nonprofits’ efforts, enrollment in high school STEM courses has started to soar among female students. However, women are still falling behind men in STEM college and university degrees and careers. 

For example, women earn nearly 60% of bachelor’s degrees but are underrepresented in STEM-related college degrees, especially in the computer sciences and engineering fields.  In California, only 15% of engineering graduates are women, and only 15% of engineers in the workforce are women. 

California should prioritize educating parents and career counselors who will encourage female students to seize higher education opportunities to enter rewarding STEM careers.

I have personally made STEM education a priority in my own family. All three of my children have attended a STEM specialized middle school. My husband and I chose to enroll our kids in a school that prioritized STEM literacy because we both felt it was essential to expose our two daughters and our son to a STEM education at an early age.

As we encourage, we also want to celebrate the many women who were STEM pioneers. 

Women like Grace Hopper, a computer programming pioneer and rear admiral in the U.S. Navy.  Rosalind Franklin, a chemist and x-ray crystallographer who made a crucial contribution to the discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA.  Katherine Johnson, a mathematician whose calculations of orbital mechanics as a NASA employee were critical to the success of the first and subsequent U.S. crewed spaceflights.  These women were trailblazers and are role models for all women who come after them.

All of this is why I have introduced Senate Concurrent Resolution 20, which will declare the week of April 4 through 10 this year as “Women and Girls in STEM Week.” SCR 20 acknowledges women’s contributions in STEM fields in California and calls on all Californians, schools, and community organizations to support and celebrate women and girls who pursue an education and career in STEM fields.