Girls and STEAM subjects The UK CEO of Siemens, Carl Ennis, told delegates at the Girls’ Schools Association (GSA) annual
Olivera Raraty Headmistress, Malvern St James Girls’ School
conference in 2021 that fighting climate change ‘will need the broadest, brightest and boldest minds and will be a struggle without a fully cross-sectional and gender-equal cohort of scientists, engineers and technologists. Inevitably, scientists and engineers will be at the heart of dealing with the challenge. And diverse teams are more likely to reach scientific breakthrough.’ Each year the UK needs 203,000 people
encourages more girls to consider a branch
the opportunities they offer for a range of
of engineering as a career that will be a
highly successful and adventurous careers.
positive aspect of the global crisis we all
Many girls do not have a chance to see
face.
what these careers look like or to hear the list of exciting, unexpected answers to the
Women account for just 24 per cent of
question ‘What do engineers actually do?’.
the UK’s workforce in engineering, science and technology (while 51 per cent of the
Girls in girls’ schools are more likely to study
working-age population are female) with
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering
only 12 per cent of them in engineering
and Maths) subjects at A level. In fact, they
(Women into Science and Engineering
are nearly three times more likely to take
(WISE)).
maths and physics. But, more widely, when
with Level 3+ engineering skills to meet
it comes to choosing university courses,
demand. This generation of teenagers is
I believe one of the reasons for these sorry
perhaps the most committed to protecting
statistics is a lack of female role models.
the planet. The interest in COP26 – and
Another is a widespread lack of information,
This may be because of the binary nature
the attendant activism – was evidence of
even a false perception, about the nature
of the decision-making aged 15 concerning
that. If contributing to the planet’s survival
of the jobs available in those sectors and
A-level subject choice. This is an unrealistic
many girls are rejecting science options.