This summer, I had the privilege of witnessing 45 middle school-aged girls from the Girl Scouts of Minnesota and Wisconsin River Valleys come together at Dunwoody College of Technology for a day of construction engineering. Led by women in the field, the girls strapped on helmets and protective gloves and got to work, learning such skills as welding, plasma-cutting, and wood-working. As always, we concluded the program by soliciting feedback:
What was your favorite part?
What would you like to see more of?
Their enthusiasm was overwhelming. The girls loved the activities, and what constructive criticism they had to offer was unified by a single clear thread: we want more challenges. My personal favorite response came from a girl who wanted, and I quote, “more dangerous things.” As if blowtorches and buzz saws weren’t dangerous enough already!
In 2012, the Girl Scout Research Institute (GSRI) collaborated with Lockheed Martin to learn more about girl interest in STEM. What they found confirms what many of us at Girl Scouts River Valleys have observed anecdotally—that the overwhelming majority of teenage girls (74%) are already interested in STEM. So why do women hold only 25% of STEM career positions? What happens in between? Why isn’t interest translating into action?
One might attribute these outcomes to girls feeling discouraged by the difficulties associated with pursuing careers in male-dominated fields. According to the same study, nearly half (47%) of all girls say they would feel uncomfortable being the only girl in a group or class. More than half (57%) of all girls say that if they went into a STEM career, they would have “to work harder than a man just to be taken seriously.” These percentages are higher for African-American and Latina girls. For example, half (50%) of African-American girls agree with the statement “Because I am female, I would NOT be treated equally by the men I studied/worked with if I pursued a career in STEM,” compared to 30% of Caucasian girls.
It is, fortunately, not so simple and far from hopeless. The same study shows that, of girls who are interested in STEM, 95% agree with the statement “If I try really hard at something, I know I will succeed.” 91% of girls interested in STEM agree that “Obstacles make me stronger.” Girls are very much aware of the challenges—and they are saying “bring it on.” So how do we provide these incredible girls with the support and opportunities to turn their casual interest into serious engagement? The Girl Scout way!
Girls Scouts has been the premier leadership organization for girls for more than 100 years, and the results are all around us. Girl Scouts make up 50% of female business leaders, 76% of female U.S. Senators, and—get this, a whopping 80% of female tech leaders. The mission of Girl Scouts is to “build girls of courage, confidence, and character who make the world a better place,” and one way we accomplish that mission is through STEM. In fact, along with Entrepreneurship, Life Skills, and Outdoor Skills, STEM is one of four major content areas identified as being the most valuable for girl leadership development.
At Girl Scouts River Valleys, our goal is to build girls’ interest, skills, and confidence in STEM. It is around those tenets—based on research and direct experiences with real girls—that we create all of our STEM programming, meetings, events, and other STEM experiences for our girls.
Is She Interested?
Research shows that girls who have an interest in STEM are more likely to try new experiences, have a positive self-image, work collaboratively, and enjoy problem solving. How, then, do we cultivate that interest? Girl Scouts River Valleys uses two main strategies. First, we engage girls with hands-on, exploratory programming. Girls want more challenges, danger, and hands-on experiences. We know already that is why so many of them come to Girl Scouts. They get enough textbook learning elsewhere.
For one event, we teach second-through-fifth grade girls about simple machines and have them build their own Rube Goldberg devices. Before th