Why We NEED Diversity in STEMM (especially in engineering)!!

Engineers 👷 and scientists 👩‍🔬 around the world are instrumental in finding effective solutions to complex issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic 🦠, global warming 🌡️ and a limited supply of fresh water 💧. They must design and create ideas that can be used by EVERYONE.

Australia is a very diverse country in terms of gender 👧👦, ethnicity ✊🏾, sexuality 🏳️‍🌈, etc. Whilst this high level of diversity provides many benefits, it also means that we all have very different needs and priorities and as a result one size DOES NOT fit all. In order to ensure that everyone's needs are catered for, we need an equally diverse group of engineers 👩‍🔬👷 that is reflective of the population.

Currently, the field of engineering ⚙️ is predominately made up of white men. Due to this lack of diversity based on gender, ethnicity, age, etc. many of the product design, development and testing is not conducted with everyone’s needs in mind. For example, a lack of drug testing on females has meant that recommended dosages are often too strong for women. Additionally, the voice recognition software in most digital assistants are designed with white men in mind. As a result, many women and people of colour struggle to use features like ‘Siri’, ‘Alexa’ or the ‘Google Assistant’.

Because many of our engineering ⚙️ teams lack diversity, they don’t know about the unique problems different people face and therefore don’t know how to address them. This is why it is vital that we encourage people of all ages, ethnic backgrounds and genders to pursue

STEMM 🧬 pathways and promote diversity in the field of engineering ⚙️, especially at senior levels.

Some simple ways YOU can help:

• EDUCATE yourself and others ( check out my youtube video on this topic too!!)

• MOTIVATE the people around you to pursue STEMM

• CALL OUT discouraging behaviour

• SHARE this post to raise awareness

• COMMENT your own ideas to promote diversity

Together we can make a difference so we urge you to play your part and help promote diversity in engineering!

- By Cherry, Co-Founder of DiscoverSTEMM