5 REASONS GIRLS AVOID ENGINEERING COURSE

5 Reasons Girls Avoid Engineering Courses…

Many of us in the science field and beyond know the

imbalance happening in the STEM(Science Technology

Engineering &Mathematics) courses.. gender imbalance!

… Many of us have noticed that their are few females in the

areas,when you step into an average engineering

department, or technology department, you could count the

number of females in these courses as opposed to other

female-populated courses like Business Admin,Medical

courses, Arts and etcetera.

Which leads one to ask-Why?

..Well ponder no more, here are the obvious reasons why

there are few females in STEM courses. Enjoy!

1.STEM courses are too long This is a known fact,to study a

course like engineering,technology,one is required to spend

at least 5 years in school, and this opposes females because

an average female will wanna get married as an

undergraduate and even have kids, and as a result, they’d

rather go for shorter courses in the social sciences,arts or

business.

2.STEM courses are male dominated :

Obviously! These set of courses are usually male dominated,

e.g. Engineering. So for a girl to apply for theses set of

courses,it would mean breaking away from the social norm

of “girls going for arts and boys for STEM”.

In fact,some girls in these departments usually feel obliged

to dress masculine, avoid putting on earrings, so as to avoid

feeling so feminine in the midst of males. A girl will rather

identify with the social norm and not want to feel odd.

3.There are few female role-models in these fields :
Convincing a female to go for STEM courses will be like
convincing a lion to eat grass,because there ain’t much
female role models that one can look up to. This
discourages an average female, outside the schools,its a
male dominated industry too. So? That’s the consequence!
4.STEM courses are expensive :
Like it or not! when you’re going for a Technology or
Engineering course,you will be required to pay more! And for
a lower middle-class economy like Nigeria’s, it will be a
struggle. I’ve seen many students struggling to pay fees,the
stress of having to work and study at the same time in order
to pay fees,buy textbooks, and other expenses connected
with the courses is something so daunting. As a result many
females are discouraged cuz they sure can’t handle the
stress! Men are tough na
5. Many girls are afraid of mathematics and calculations :
This is something you discover right from your days in
secondary school, a lotta girls shiver whenever they
encounter mathematics or any calculations .. we boys use
this as a pretext to get that fine girl in our class/department
lol… Consequently, many girls will rather avoid calculative
courses and the likes .. they’d rather go for the theory or
management based courses.. it’s not their fault na,its just so
they will have time for themselves. ..

Today, there are more opportunities available to girls.
Organisations such as the World Academy of Science, the
Organization for Women in Science in the Developing World,
L’Oreal for Women in Science, the Elsevier Foundation, and
the British CouncilGhana all have awards, recognition and
fellowships specifically for girls and women. The Visiola
Foundationalso provides scholarships for girls to study
STEM, and an annual week-long STEM Summer Camp to
pique the interest of women in the STEM fields from an
early age.