International Teachers’ and Advisers’ Conference 2020 – CANCELLED

Not so long ago, science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM) were seen as ‘men’s subjects’. This meant very few women pursuing degrees in areas such as engineering, computing science, chemistry, physics, and astronomy. Subsequently, the talents and skills of half the population were largely lost to some of the most important and growing sectors of UK industry.

Things have changed – but how much? Is there still a sense that women don’t feel comfortable taking degrees using STEM skills? And what can be done to ensure these outdated perceptions die out? 

The University of Southampton is a founding signatory of the Athena SWAN Charter and holds a silver-level Athena SWAN award. As a signatory, we recognise the specific challenges that affect men and women in academic careers, which leads to fewer women at senior levels of higher education. We are committed to addressing these issues, to maximising the potential of all our people, and in this session, we explore how we can improve gender diversity in STEM looking at:

• When does all this begin?
• How can we expose girls to career choices where STEM subjects are important and reinforce the message that there’s no reason why they can’t take them up and thrive?
• The ideas we are trying to get young women into STEM degrees and careers.
• Sharing case studies of our current successful female students who are studying STEM degrees.