Promoting STEM Professions to Our Girls

This past weekend, I attended the "Tech Savvy" Conference that the American Association of University Women (AAUW) sponsors to promote the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) to girls in middle and high school. It is the second time I have gone to this inspiring event with one of my daughters. The conference gives girls a wonderful opportunity to meet women who are employed in STEM professions and to learn about their valuable work. There is a parallel track for parents to understand how to best motivate and encourage their daughters to pursue higher education in STEM, and to help them launch a career in these well-paying, but male-dominated professions.

At the conference, parents were provided with the result of an intensive study conducted by the AAUW entitled Why So Few? to determine why women are still terribly underrepresented in the STEM professions and how the problem might be addressed. This very interesting report concludes that, while there have been significant strides for women in the STEM fields, there are still striking disparities between men and women which must be addressed. Among the critical findings of the report are that although girls' interests in math and science are developed early in life, it is in college that they choose to pursue a STEM career, or by the same token, choose not to become scientists, engineers or doctors. Thus universities must develop programs which interest and retain female students including a broad range of survey-type courses. Secondly, the AAUW research also found percentage of women earning bachelor's degrees in computer science has actually declined since the mid-1980's and that women earned only 21% of the doctorates awarded in this field in 2006. A third finding contained in the report confirms that men are not biologically more capable than women at math and science, but rather sociocultural factors still play a strong role in the gap that exists in representation in STEM fields between the sexes. And finally the report concludes that unfortunately, women leave the STEM professions because of unfavorable work environments.

As an immigration lawyer, I am well aware that many technology companies and universities in the U.S. rely on foreign-born professionals to fill a void that exists in the STEM occupations. They claim that there is a dearth of Americans who are educated and trained in these areas and, consequently, they must recruit and hire foreign nationals to meet the demand.

The H1B visa for skilled workers is the means by which U.S. employers can temporarily employ foreign professionals in STEM fields, such as engineers and computer specialists. These visas exist precisely because of the lack of qualified Americans, both women and men, in various professions, although predominantly the STEM fields. As such, the U.S. fears lagging behind other rich nations and thus, not maintaining a favorable competitive edge in the global economy. The recipient of such a visa must have four years of university level education or its equivalent, and must also secure a job offer from a U.S. employer. The employer is not required to prove that there are no ready, willing and able Americans to conduct the type of work for which they require a foreign national, but the employer must promise to pay the employee the prevailing wage in the profession. To meet the need during the technology boom, 195,000 H1B visas were made available in fiscal years 2001, 2002 and 2003, but since then, the limit has returned to 65,000 (with an additional 20,000for individuals with master’s degrees or doctorates.

At various times in the recent past there have been huge outcries by the technology and other industries about the need to raise the 65,000 cap on the availability of the visa to meet the growing demand for STEM professionals. Microsoft and Silicon Valley corporations, for example, have quite actively lobbied Congress to increase the number of foreigners permitted to obtain H1B visas, and undoubtedly these companies spent millions of dollars on those efforts. On the other hand, critics of the program argue that these companies simply want access to cheaper skilled labor in order to keep down wages and salaries in lucrative but competitive industries, such as technology and engineering.

I have another concern to raise about this issue-- and I recognize I am fueling an aspect of the delicate anti-immigrant debate by doing so-- but I wonder whether the relatively easy access to foreign-born skilled labor eliminates the incentive to promote the STEM professions to U.S. girls and women? I also cannot help but wonder what might happen if technology companies, universities, and others who vigorously lobby for increased amounts of H1B visas were to put the same amount of money and resources into creating programs for girls and young women which would encourage them to enter a STEM field. Could they help bridge the unjustifiable gap between men and women in these professions, as well as create a well-trained pool of prospective employees to meet their need for qualified labor? Imagine the intensive summer camps and special educational programs Microsoft alone could afford to sponsor to motivate American girls to explore math, science, computers, engineering and medicine. Imagine if every tech company in Silicon Valley sponsored a conference like the one I attended in a community in the United States. Imagine if colleges and universities established special scholarships to help finance an education in a STEM major for girls of limited economic means and adopted an educational program for female students like the one suggested by AAUW. Additionally, if, as the report determined, women are leaving such professions at some point in their careers, then why are these employers not expending more resources to explore why this happens, and to find concrete solutions to stop the attrition of talented women from the field? These are just my simple thoughts without much investigation into the issue. However, when I wrote this piece I googled “tech companies promote STEM for girls,” and didn’t come up with much. I noted that there exist several small organizations which design programs similar to the AAUW’s conference, but I did not immediately note that any major companies were associated with these endeavors. On the other hand, when I googled, “lobbying for H1B cap,” Bill Gates’ name, and those of other well-known technology companies, came up in virtually every entry.

Based on their research, AAUW has very concrete suggestions for improving the landscape for girls , many of which could be undertaken by prospective employers in the STEM professions. They include: more active outreach and recruitment of girls by colleges and universities and development of a curriculum specifically tailored to interest girls and keep them engaged in STEM majors; exposure of girls to more women in the field to serve as role models; support work-life balance in the workplace which is essential to the retention of professional women; and of course, eliminate stereotypes and bias. To this I might suggest that there be a shift in resources in the STEM industries toward promoting the fields to our girls instead of further opening the door to foreign employees.