Lillie Bennett ’23 first considered a career in computer science when she was in high school at Columbia Secondary School for Math, Science, and Engineering in New York, New York.
There, Bennett attended conferences hosted by Google or Microsoft where she learned how to code.
Bennett saw a future for herself in the women who helped to host these conferences.
“I loved the community and the support of women in the field and how much people pushed me and other girls to stick with math or the difficult subjects that we get into,” Bennett said.
Identifying with female role models is key to more women pursuing careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). According to research from the American Association of University Women, female mentors play an important role in strengthening a young woman’s attitudes and self-concepts towards science and math, leading girls to consider STEM fields as viable career options.
“It’s difficult to find that path of going from high school to college to a career in something where there’s not as many mentors, people to look up to or role models who are women who did the same thing,” Bennett said. “It’s hard.”
After her exposure to coding and to women in tech, Bennett decided to stick with computer science, declaring computer science as her major at St. Joe’s. It seemed like a natural fit for her.
“I love puzzles,” Bennett said. “Throughout quarantine, I’ve been doing puzzles, and computer science is a lot of that. Programming is just taking little pieces and different concepts and figuring out how to make this bigger thing work in the way that you want us to.”
In her STEM classes at St. Joe’s, though, Bennett said sometimes doubts kick in.
“For me, I’m often nervous to participate because if I’m wrong, I don’t want to be that one dumb girl who’s participating,” Bennett said.
Bennett looks up to her professors because she can relate to them.
“I’ve had two professors in computer science that are women so that is really a unique part of our program that makes it more welcoming,” Bennett said.
Bennett said a culture of maleness that surrounds STEM continues to impact spaces that women in STEM inhabit.
“The energy in a classroom can feel more supportive towards men,” Bennett said. “I think a lot of that is just how men in classrooms work in technology. They often don’t have that sense of questioning ‘If I’m wrong, I can’t stand up and say anything.’”
For Tetyana Berezovski, Ph.D., professor of math and director of graduate programs in mathematics education, the lack of female class participation is a product of our culture.
“To change culture takes time,” Berezovski said. “Ten to 20 years ago, girls would say, ‘Oh, I don’t know math,’ and moms would be supportive of that claim. Now girls take it. They have really changed in the world.”
Due to gender disparities, girls and women are systematically tracked away from mathematics and science throughout their education with girls losing confidence in math by the third grade, according to a report published by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Without gender-focused interventions at the elementary school level, a woman’s long-term education is affected, limiting her training and options to pursue those careers.
To counteract this trend, Berezovski makes a point to call on female students and encourages female participation in order to help encourage a culture of answering questions.
Iswarya Vel ’21, a biology and business intelligence and analytics double major, said the problem is more apparent in majors where men outnumber women. In biology, she said she is surrounded by women and that boosts her confidence.
Vel’s advice for other women in STEM majors is to seek one another out for support, especially when they experience bias.
“It’s important to find people who are in similar situations as you,” Vel said. “Talking to other people helps you know it’s not in your head. You can talk it out. It’s really helpful.”
Maria Johnson ’21, a biology major, credits The John P. McNulty Scholars Program for Excellence in Math and Science for assisting female students who want to pursue careers in STEM and providing them with valuable support.
The McNulty program was established in 2008 by Anne Welsh McNulty and has been awarding young women pursuing a degree in the natural sciences, mathematics or computer science, full- and partial-tuition scholarships at St. Joe’s. Besides financial support, McNulty sponsors weekly seminars as well as early research experiences.
“We have that extra support system, in terms of the choices we make and the endeavors we pursue,” Johnson said. “I’m rather lucky in the sense that I don’t feel out of place.”
Vel has found that support among fellow participants in the McNulty program as well.
“We’re all like-minded females in STEM,” Vel said. “We already have a group of people that we can talk to and have similar experiences with.”
McNulty aims to address important needs for women in STEM: the opportunity to do research, and the support of a mentor. Vel said she had benefited from both.
“McNulty really likes to promote us doing research and being involved in research in general,” Vel said. “They’ll provide funding for us to do research on campus in the summer. They’ll provide funding if we were to go and present our research at a conference. They’ll pay for the fee to enter the conference, which is really helpful, compared to all my peers, who have to find other means of pursuing research. We also have a McNulty mentor. They’re there to just help guide us just in terms of leadership and what we want to do that is outside of a regular academic advisor.”
Berezovski said if women in math are interested in doing research, it is important for faculty to “build a pipeline for them to succeed.”
Ultimately, though, Johnson said it is up to women to ignore the bias against women in STEM and to believe in their capabilities. That is what she does.
“I have the skills and the ability, and I deserve to be here just as much as anyone else,” Johnson said. “It’s something you have to think about constantly, to remember that just because other people don’t have confidence in my skills doesn’t mean that I can’t have confidence in my own ability to accomplish goals.”
