We joined the Stemettes as on their march across Waterloo Bridge on 13 February to raise awareness of the need for greater gender representation in UK curriculum STEM subjects.

A Stemettes commissioned survey, supported by the British Science Association, shows that 1 in 3 young people say they haven’t or don’t remember being taught about a woman scientist in the past 2 years.

Despite this, 70% of young people between the ages of 14 to 19 who were surveyed also said they thought it was important for schools to include information about women STEM role models in their lessons. Boys (71%) are just as likely to agree with this statement as girls (65%).

At the event, Stemettes celebrated 10 years of inspiring over 60,000 girls, young women and non-binary people into STEM and outlined plans to celebrate its 10th birthday with a series of free public events and roundtable discussions in the North East, London and West Midlands.

Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE, Co-founder and CEO of Stemettes said: “Ten years of work has helped so many to make informed decisions about their futures - across our events, programmes and platforms we’re shifting the social norm on women and the STEM & STEAM fields. I’m proud of the future we’re creating and what we’ve been able to achieve so far in partnership with industry, academia and entrepreneurs. Here’s to a maximum of 10 more years of work needed from Stemettes and a plethora of systemic changes to ensure this is a problem of the past.”

Floriane Fidegnon-Edoh, chairperson of the Stemette Futures youth board, spoke with us to share her thoughts on the importance of gender representation, what STEM means to her, and what the future of the STEM industry could look like for young people:

Source: EngineeringUK

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