The dominant conversation about women in science, technology, engineering and math is an undeniably depressing one. Not only are women currently underrepresented in and discriminated against in these fields, but rates of girls choosing to enter STEM is on the decline, too. While raising awareness about this troubling reality is certainly necessary, framing it as a lost cause does little to actually convince girls and women to pursue these careers.
A crucial element missing from this conversation, therefore, is visibility about the positive experiences that plenty of female scientists, engineers and mathematicians do, in fact, have. These professionals didn’t just enter their fields to contribute to a better overall statistic of representation — they did so for personal reasons, and they are reaping the benefits.
Here are just a few women’s reasons for going into STEM — and their advice for women looking to do the same.
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Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
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