Transcriber: Mai Ngân Nguyễn Reviewer: Ido Dekkers
Ever since I was a child,
the people around me have encouraged me to pursue what I wanted to pursue.
And for me, that was science.
My parents allowed seven-year-old Nicole to flip through
the pages of their old medical textbooks filled with daunting words such as
acute pharyngitis, vile rhinitis and anemia.
Even those seven-year-old Nicole didn’t exactly understand what these words meant,
she was still intrigued by the seemingly endless world of the human body.
Young Nicole was also enrolled in several science camps
where her experiences ranged from dissecting a pig
and sticking flags and its organs
to building a mini zip line
to culturing bacteria swab from the surface of her phone.
Throughout my life,
I've lived in an environment which has supported my passions
and challenged me to do more every single day,
including my environment here at CPS.
However, as I’ve met more people
and I’ve learned more about the world around me.
I’ve grown to realize that these experiences are not universal.
In fact,
many girls experience the polar opposite of a positive and supportive environment
regarding their experiences in science, technology, engineering and mathematics,
abbreviated as STEM.
I’ve heard stories of girls who have been shut down
by people who are meant to be figures of trust.
Teachers, guidance counselors and even parents.
One notable example is a geneticist named Dr. Jennifer Doudna,
who is notable for her work in CRISPR gene editing.
And her high school guidance counselor told her “Girls don’t do science”.
These experiences and several other factors
lead to the current gender inequality in STEM.
Overall, in the STEM field,
women and men actually have roughly equal numbers.
But the issue here lies in the inequality in certain fields.
In health related fields, women are actually overrepresented,
making up 74 percent of the field,
but in fields like computer science and engineering.
Women make up 25 percent and 15 percent respectively.
And studies show that these inequalities actually stem from
the beginning of their lives.
Girls are less likely to be encouraged to go into STEM by the people around them.
Girls are not likely to be encouraged
because of the current gender roles prevailing in the society
where men are expected to be confident, assertive
and have qualities that are associated with STEM jobs.
While women are tended to be seen as more submissive and too emotional
and often have qualities associated with arts and humanities.
And because of these different gender roles,
girls and boys are raised up differently,
which leads to girls being less confident and seeming less talented
in the fields that they want to pursue, especially in areas of science.
And because of the seemingly lack of talent,
girls are discouraged from pursuing higher education in these fields,
which then leads to them not being prepared to go into STEM jobs
and STEM roles.
And this discouragement is very terrible
because we need more girls in STEM due to the effects of gender equality.
Gender equality actually promotes a more innovative environment
where girls and boys come together and they can share their perspective
and have an increased bank of knowledge.
However, on the flip side, if there’s no gender diversity,
then technology and innovations that come out of these fields
are often less fair and less accessible.
For example, a study showed that for facial recognition technology,
it tended to work better for white men, while worse for women and people of color.
Why?
This was because the majority of people who were developing this technology
were white men.
And what did they do?
They used photos of people like them,
white men
to develop the technology and less of women and people of color,
which resulted in it being less accessible
for women and people of color compared to white men.
And this seems like a lot of information,
it seems like it's a snowball rolling faster and faster downhill
As it grows larger and larger,
and it feels like it’s going to crash right into me,
as if I’m hopeless. to stop it.
But we can stop it.
We can stop it through looking at the girls today
and encouraging them by promoting a supportive environment,
where girls have safe spaces to pursue their passions,
such as clubs like “Girls can code” and “Women in STEM.”
We also should promote an environment
where girls are encouraged to explore opportunities in the STEM field
and be able to obtain experiences to help them get to know what it's really like
and show them that being in STEM can have such a positive impact.
Aside from fields like health related fields and medicine,
but also in fields like computer science and engineering.
Also, we can show amazing role models in STEM,
such as Marie Curie,
who is a notable Nobel Prize winner,
who is well known for her work on radioactivity,
to Katherine Johnson, a research mathematician at NASA,
who the astronauts trusted more to do the calculations than actual computers.
Can you believe that?
Another notable example is Dr. Jennifer Doudna,
a Nobel biochemist
who has made significant strides in the field of CRISPR gene editing.
Like these women, any girl can achieve the impossible.
Also, to help women currently in STEM,
we should create a more safer and better environment for them
through gauging how their environment is currently like
and pursuing steps and training that helps create a safer environment for them.
This can be achieved by implementing systems such as
reporting where they can let people know about harassment or discrimination
that they’ve experienced in the STEM fields.
And this is important so that people can be held accountable
and so these instances cannot happen ever again.
We can also let people know about how important their contributions are,
so they feel appreciated.
And because women in STEM are truly inspiring.
They make so much, they do so many things,
and I'm quite honored that they are in these fields.
We can also implement a system
where we make sure that women are safe.
And so, to everyone out here,
thank you so much for listening.
Thank you to my teachers, mentors and peers
for creating such a supportive environment
and for letting me pursue my passions in STEM.
Thank you to the women in STEM for being there
and for being such an inspiration
and making such a huge contribution to this society.
And lastly, I want to say to the girls of today.
The girls who may have been discouraged to go into STEM
due to people who they thought they could trust
or people who had societal expectations of them.
To girls who knew that they wanted to go into STEM from day one,
I believe in you and even though I may just be one voice,
I hope that my one voice can help you achieve your dreams.
Together, we can create a better world for the women and girls of the present
and future in STEM.
Thank you.
(Applause)