Study finds ‘not enough female talent in STEM’

Over 4,000 female students across Ireland flocked to the RDS on 6 February to attend the I Wish STEM showcase.

Since 2015, I Wish – a volunteer-led community committed to showcasing the power of science, technology, engineering and maths to female secondary school students – has engaged with over 62,000 students and partnered with 130 industry members.

The organisation was founded by Caroline O’Driscoll and Gillian Keating to encourage girls to consider a career in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM).

“Gillian and I were involved in several networking organisations in Cork and one of the things emerging in the region was there was not enough female talent in STEM, particularly in technology. I was on the board of an organisation looking around the room, wondering, where are all the women – it was pretty stark,” says Caroline.

After looking into the university admissions in Ireland, they noticed the number of female students going into Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and engineering courses between 2004 and 2014 had stayed static at 15% over the ten years.

“We looked around and thought, there’s a lot of initiatives for women in business, women in leadership, but the pipeline is leaky, and that’s what needs to be addressed. We need to encourage girls to pursue STEM subjects, and STEM careers,” she says.

The 2015 event took place in Cork with 1,000 girls signing up within a week; the following year it had a waiting list. Due to the demand and importance of showcasing STEM subjects to this cohort of teenage girls aged between 13- 15, Caroline and Gillian decided to take the event nationally. And now 11 years on, it has 4,000 girls from across Ireland attending the showcase at the RDS.

Lack of choice

After each event, they survey attendees to give them a voice and allow them to share their thoughts on careers in STEM.

Four things that come up every year is; the desire to know more about STEM, the need for more access to role models in STEM, girls not having enough confidence to pursue STEM subjects and access to these subjects in schools.

“Even to this day, over half of the girls who take part in the survey say they’re not confident in their ability to pursue STEM careers. That’s the thing that gets at your heartstrings, a young girl is sitting in a classroom right now thinking that she can’t,” says Caroline.

Looking at the data from the Department of Education, Caroline says, 68% of girl’s schools have access to a STEM subject other than maths and science, but that figure is 96% for boys’ schools.

Knowledge is going to help reduce stigma. The availability of services and access is going to reduce stigma

“These are relatively new courses in our education system, and a decision was made to offer them to more boy’s schools than girls’ schools. And I think that sends a message to a girl, at 13- 14, years of age. That has to be addressed in a very serious way and that’s something that we’ve brought to the Department of Education – that these girls must have access to the subjects they want to do,” says Caroline.

The venue was split into different sections on the day to showcase career and job opportunities in STEM. Students were able to listen to talks, explore areas and hear about the career opportunities in each sector.

“It’s not something that now stands alone, it’s in everybody’s job, whether it’s the technology advancements on a farm or office equipment. It’s a real part of everyone’s life now. What we’re trying to say to girls is if you don’t participate in STEM your opportunities in the jobs of tomorrow are going to be very limited,” says Caroline.

Opportunities

The event had a food science hub area showcasing the opportunities for women in the agri-food sector. One of the companies attending was Carbery Group; we spoke to Aishling Goulden, the company’s HR lead on the opportunities in STEM.

“I think if we have all of the same gender in any role, in any company it isn’t good, you need that diversity of thinking. You can even see that in terms of helping us create better products overall and better solutions because it’s good to have that diverse range of thought,” she says.

The culture in Carbery according to Aishling is not to be afraid of to challenge and push yourself, even if you fail it’s OK its about learning from that.

“Carbery is owned by four co-ops, which are our farmers. We’ve done a lot in terms of trying to promote our female farmers at that level and bringing them into the company, in the farming population and our workforce,” says Aishling.

“The perception is still there, that it can be a quite physical industry, but due to the automation in the equipment, there is a lot less manual handling needed.”

Aishling sees a lot of opportunities around sustainability and technology within agriculture.

“From a Carbery point of view around sustainability we have a circular economy here within the factories. Every drop of milk gets used and a lot of people like getting into that side of STEM,” she says.

The 2024 I Wish report reveals that;