University web site addresses gender gap in STEM fields

Arizona State will share video resources billed as ‘resilience training’ to help more women earn advanced STEM degrees

By Dennis Carter, Assistant Editor
Read more by Denny Carter

ASU's new web site will include videos of women with successful careers in the STEM fields.

Arizona State University officials aren’t just adding to the reams of research showing a gender gap in the science, technology, education, and math (STEM) fields. They’re confronting the persistent issue with a web site that encourages women to identify and rectify the “benevolent sexism” prevalent in these male-dominated fields.

The university will launch CareerWISE.com Nov. 4 after receiving a $3.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 2006.

The site, more than just another web resource with studies on how few women are entering STEM fields and finishing degree programs, will offer advice and encouragement from women who have succeeded in the four STEM professions in an effort to close this gender gap.

The web site, aimed at women pursuing their doctorate degrees in STEM fields, will have hundreds of “HerStory” video clips of women who have navigated the difficult STEM road and established careers.

Videos will be available in a wide variety of STEM fields, meaning women can find others from their particular profession, not just someone with a general STEM career, said Bianca Bernstein, an ASU counseling psychology professor and principal investigator of the CareerWISE research program grants.

Read the full story on eCampus News