How Women Are Breaking Down Barriers To Working In Fields Like Engineering and Tech
FREDERICTON – Girls STEM Up, an organization dedicated to promoting and empowering women in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM), held its second annual conference on the weekend in Fredericton.
Cathy Simpson is the CEO of TechImpact, an organization whose goal is to grow the tech industry of Atlantic Canada, whose career spans 29 years. As one of the conference’s keynote speakers, Simpson spoke with young women about making an impact on one’s community and making an impact as women in STEM.
“It has nothing to do with that old myth of boys are more geared toward science and engineering while girls are more geared towards other skills,” says Simpson, when asked about the flat statistics of girls entering STEM fields.
“There are still biases. Girls don’t naturally fall into roles if they don’t see other women in those roles. I take the old saying of you can’t be what you can’t see, a little bit further. I believe you can’t be what you can’t see and don’t even know it exists.”
These unconscious biases are felt by female STEM students while doing their degrees.
“Being a female student in an underrepresented field of study is why I felt compelled to join Girls STEM Up,” says conference co-chair Charlotte Sampson, who is a fifth-year Bachelor of Arts and Science student majoring in French and Mathematics at UNB.
“It was very personal to me because in my STEM classes I would always have only one or two other girls alongside me, and I wanted to change that,” she says.
In 2015, Cathy Simpson created a social enterprise called Up+Go, delivering leadership and self-discovery programs for high school girls and introducing them to New Brunswick women who are doing extraordinary things, particularly in the areas of entrepreneurship, leadership and STEM.
Forums such as Girls STEM Up aim to provide young women with exposure, support and opportunities in STEM. Last year 250 people attended the inaugural conference and this year 300 people are set to attend.
Simpson and some of the women from when she started at NBTel had recently talked about how there weren’t a lot of women in the room when they started out, how they often thought they had to compete against each other because there was only so many, and fewer, seats for women versus the men.
“You really had to surround yourself with the right men who focused on you as an individual,” said Simpson. “That is why forums such as Girls STEM Up are so important for our province because we’re trying to build growth mindset so they can discover the possibilities of STEM – they are truly life changing.”
Discovery is the central pillar of this year’s conference and ties into its different themes, from discovering knowledge about the STEM fields to discovering one’s voice and community and one’s creativity and passion.
“Our goal is for people to not only take away outward discovery and discovery of the sciences from Girls STEM UP: DISCOVERY, but also the feeling of self-discovery,” said Reid Sutherland, conference co-chair.
“If you don’t grow as a person, you aren’t going to achieve your goals.”