March is Women’s History Month and I’d like to shed light on all of the amazing accomplishments from the past, mainly focusing on women in STEM. Women makeup 28% of the workforce in science, technology, engineering, and math. It’s a man dominated field- nearly
21% of women are engineering majors and 19% of computer science majors are women. It is important to erase gender stereotypes, promote young girls’ confidence in themselves, and lastly to provide women role models for young girls to look up to.
– In 1993, Dr. Ellen Ochoa became the first Hispanic woman to travel to space. She served on a nine day mission aboard the shuttle “Discovery”. Since then she has been to space four times, logging 1,000 hours in orbit. Before she became an astronaut she was a research engineer and inventor, who had three patents for optical systems.
– Katherine Johnson is an African-American space scientist, mathematician, and also a leading figure in American Space history. She played a huge role in calculating key trajectories in the Space Race- helped Alan Shepard, who was the first American in space, as well as 1969 Apollo 11 flight to the moon.
– Marie Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first and only woman to win twice, and win in two different sciences. She is most known for her work with radioactivity. She discovered two new elements in 1898, Polonium and Radium. She also developed the theory of radioactivity, creating techniques for isolating isotopes, and built mobile radiography units.
– In 1934 Dr. Grace Hopper became the first woman to earn a PHD in mathematics from Yale University. During World War 2 she joined the US Naval Reserves, and worked on programming Mark 1- the first ever computer.
Written by BSW Intern, McKenna Pettigrew
The stem gap: Women and girls in Science, Technology, engineering and Mathematics. AAUW. (2022, March 3). https://www.aauw.org/resources/research/the-stem-gap/
National Archives and Records Administration. (n.d.). The untold history of women in science and technology. National Archives and Records Administration.
https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/women-in-stem
Inspirational women in STEM: Accenture UK. Inspirational Women in STEM | Accenture UK. (n.d.).
https://www.accenture.com/gb-en/blogs/blogs-inspirational-women-stem