Making STEM a better place for women

[jweston]

Originally Posted by popnbrown

You're correct that that is the change we need, but I think your approach is a little mis-guided. I believe the approach should be:

Originally Posted by Karthik

The sooner we stop focusing on teaching girls how to deal with harassment from boys, and start teaching boys not to harass girls, the better. The onus needs to be on the perpetrators of harassment, not the victims.

Originally Posted by popnbrown

Girls will feel secure when the environment for them is secure.

The environment is just one part of it... or perhaps I'm getting lost in terminology. It truly is not enough to simply make the environment (is that FRC or the world?) a place where girls/women can feel secure. It's a good start to be sure, but it does nothing to undo years of society telling them to not rock the boat. Life gets bumpy sometimes. We want all of our students to feel empowered to meet challenges and conflicts.

Beyond having a secure envinroment, it's also about calling out every time an adult tells a young girl to let someone else do something for her that she could do for herself. It's about watching for the girl who wants to participate but gets shoved out of the way while the teacher/coach/professor/supervisor ignores her. It's about encouraging girls from an early age to be forthcoming and clear about what's on their minds. And when they are, then it's about refraining from criticizing or ostracizing a girl for her stating her mind. It's about not second guessing her when she gives her opinion. It's about not insisting that she constantly prove she deserves to be respected. It's about looking at her with the same basic respect if she were male.

This may sound like it's putting the onus on women. It's not. It's putting the onus on all of us to find ways to not force women into the choice of being true to themselves or living harmoniously with their familes and communities.

I'm not expecting the suggestions above are any kind of solution. That's way above my paygrade.