In December 2013 we attended a ‘Women in STEM’ roundtable at No 10 Downing St along with several STEM companies, institutions and outreach groups. We presented what a joined-up solution to the ‘women in STEM’ problem should look like.
Fast forward a couple of months and the Stemettes have made an official pledge alongside STEM employers, businesses and institutions, all of whom are listed as signatories on the ‘Your Life’ campaign.
We pledge:
- Stemettes commits to running quarterly public panel events, hackathons and exhibitions to inspire the next generation of women into STEM fields.
- Stemettes commits to increasing science capital by including parents at our public events.
- Stemettes commits to increasing the provision of career guidance and quality mentoring for girls over 16 in the UK through a series of webinars and mentoring sprints.
Between May 2014 and May 2015, Stemettes pledged that:
- For every quarterly panel event for girls and parents that we run in London, we’ll run one outside of London at a STEM employer’s offices
- We’ll run hackathons at STEM employers’ offices for girls to work on mini-projects with women across STEM, where they’ll also be awarded the British Science Association CREST Awards
- We’ll continue to include parents in our public events and in doing so will boost the science capital of girls on the project.
- We’ll run a series of mentoring sprints and career guidance webinars for girls over 16 who have the potential to become ‘Stemettes’
- We’ll extend our ‘STEM in a Day’ offering to girls between 11 – 18 years old and will seek connections to more companies across STEM to host day-long workshops
- We’ll continue to offer ‘Tap & Tinker’ sessions for girls aged 11 and under, bringing women working in STEM into the school environment to work with them for half a day.
- We’ll also nurture support and promote high-potential girls who engage with the project. Further details will be made public in a separate announcement in 2015.
- We’ll maintain a very active presence on social media targeting girls, their parents and other stakeholders, to raise awareness of role models, news and best practices in this space.
