Gender - What you can do
- Check out the Top Tips for general hints after all learners are all different and a variety of factors may affect a young person’s career choice including peer and family pressure and the media’s portrayal of different jobs. Add to this other factors associated with broader social inclusion issues, for example, social class, being a young carer or the type of school attended then it is easy to understand why young people are more likely to choose a career which they know something about, one which is ‘safe.’ A lack of confidence can also prevent them from trying something ‘different’ and being able to cope with the challenges which a STEM career can bring.
- Use the How to design an industrial visit to inspire young people leaflet on the resources pages of this site for more information. Activities such as industrial visits or work experience placements can be enhanced by planning inspiring activities and ensuring that positive female role models are involved.
- Look at the examples on the London Engineering Project website. They have managed to make activities more inclusive for girls and pupils from black and minority ethnic communities and have achieved success in boosting interest from these under-represented groups.
- Read some of the research for ideas and background information and maybe conduct some action research. One report produced for The Institute of Physics, ‘Girls in the Physics Classroom’, suggests that girls receive and learn differently to boys:
‘Girls are more likely than boys to value the social context in which tasks are placed in defining a problem; boys are more likely not to notice the context.’
- Refer to '20 Ways to make careers advice women friendly' from the STEM Subject Choice and Careers STEM Choices Pack and Engaging with Girls - an action pack for teachers from the Institute of Physics for more advice and guidance. Register for the STEM Choices pack through the STEM Subject Choice and Careers digital storecupboard: stemcareers@shu.ac.uk.
- Check out the Teachers TV programmes linked to STEM Careers now hosted on the National STEM Centre e-library - especially the Equality and Diversity and Role Models and Work Placements programmes.