Horizon Educational Champions Women in STEM
Since the origins of STEM education in the 18th century, these fields have had low participation rates among women and girls. Even in our modern age women participate in STEM at a very low rate. In Japan, for instance, women only make up 25 per cent of enrolment in STEM-related programs at university. In the European Union, only 16.7% of Information and communication technology specialists are women, while in the UK almost 95% of inventions in the field of computing were by men.
Researchers also agree that to increase women’s enrolment in STEM education it should be promoted at the earliest possible age – ideally in middle and high school. Getting girls into STEM education early on is essential in increasing the number of women who choose to pursue a career in these areas, as children are most easily influenced at a young age.
Horizon Educational is proud to work with an array of partner schools around the world to further this aim. One of these schools is the New Village Girls Academy in Los Angles. Not only does this school enrol young women who face an array of daunting challenges in their lives – such as pregnancy, parenting, violence, foster care and poverty – but it aims to provide the type of STEM and STEAM education young girls are often left out of.
Through this opportunity to learn about renewable energy and hydrogen fuel cells – young girls at the New Village Academy are better prepared to enter a variety of STEM careers in the future. Exposing them to the science behind hydrogen fuel cell energy at an early age is part of Horizon Educational’s mission to broaden opportunities for women and girls to join the renewable energy workforce.
Our partner schools play a central role in furthering this mission – introducing renewable energy education to students who would otherwise be excluded from the future energy economy.
Sources:
Keate, Georgie (27 December 2016). "New generation of inventors wanted: women need to apply". https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/new-generation-of-inventors-wanted-women-need-to-apply-0jbkfq5bk
Blackburn, Heidi, The Status of Women in STEM in Higher Education: A Review of the Literature 2007–2017, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0194262X.2017.1371658
