Trump Signs Bill to Encourage Recruitment of Women in STEM Fields
Just a tad problematic for the Day Without Women crowd
As women of privilege abdicate their responsibilities in order to protest President Trump, women hoping to get a leg into the science, technology, engineering and math fields (STEM) have new hope.
A week ago, Trump signed a pair of bills meant to encourage the recruitment of women in male-heavy STEM fields. Only one in four women who hold a STEM degree work in a comparable field. Trump called this “unfair.”
From Fox DC:
President Trump said at an Oval Office ceremony that it’s unfair that only one in four women with a degree in one of these areas works in the field.
One measure authorizes the NASA administrator to encourage young women to study STEM fields and pursue careers that will help advance science and space exploration. It also requires NASA to report to Congress on its plans for achieving the goals spelled out in the legislation.
The second measure authorizes the National Science Foundation to encourage its entrepreneurial programs to recruit and support women to extend their focus beyond the laboratory and into the commercial world.
Trump as the anti-woman president is just another mantra of the ill-informed. He might be uncouth, but so far, nothing about his actions as president indicate sexism.
Trump callously signs bill aimed at getting women into STEM. Next thing you know he'll be sending them to concentration camps. h/t @JoshYaz pic.twitter.com/lh3oVnqX0A
— Harry Khachatrian (@Harry1T6) March 2, 2017
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Comments
How much is it costing me for Trump to look good to the cool kids? I’m ok if it’s not costing me anything.
Otherwise, parents, enroll your daughters in a local robotics club. Just watched a team of girls who won states in their division and going to world championships and looked super excited. I think the encouragement they received is all you need to create future engineers, and I think those girls have a bright future. They built a great robot.
Didn’t cost any federal taxpayer money.
There is already a great deal of effort expended trying to push women into science and technology. There is also a hiring bias in favor of female candidates in these fields. Given the evidence of the past several decades and the so-called “Norwegian Paradox” (prosperous countries with the greatest ‘equalizing’ legislation have a greater and expanding disparity in STEM participation) shows us that the root cause is not opportunity, but interest. When freed from the economic need to land in the most lucrative career, a lot of women choose to do something else. This is why India has a higher female STEM participation rate than Norway. The Indian women need the money, the Norwegians have the freedom to choose what they’d prefer to do. And by in large they choose not to go into these fields. While by no means an absolute rule, it does explain everything we see about these numbers with the added benefit of implying or accusing entities bending over backwards to drive women into STEM of being biased against women.
Sorry, that word should have been in originally.
As a long-time Silicon Valley tech worker, I can attest to the truth of this. Some women are drawn to highly technical work just as men are, and they are equally good at it. But they are a distinct minority. In most tech companies today, some 25% of the engineers are women. If you look, say, at kindergarten teachers, the statistics are probably reversed. Why is this a problem that needs to be fixed?
Harald Eia made an excellent documentary series about the Norwegian effect and other matters that you can find on youtube by searching for ‘hjernevask’.
Ah, another nefarious trick by this administration to try to level the playing field for women. Everyone knows that screeching in the streets dressed in vagina costumes and claiming to be nasty menstrual women is the way to equality, respect and dignity.
From we are women hear us roar to we are women hear us whine in a generation. You’ve come a long way babies.
President Trump’s signing of this law will also provide an excellent example for a philosophical STEM question: “If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound?”
The MSM will give more coverage to that unknown, unheard tree falling than they will regarding the Presdeent signing a law to help women.
President. Sorry for the typo.
If Donald Trump speaks in the middle of the forest, and there’s no ultra-feminists around to hear him, is he still sexist/chauvinist/wrong?
Only one in four women who hold a STEM degree work in a comparable field. Trump called this “unfair.”
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idiotic statement meant to play upon the gender card.
its quotas disguised as something else and is extremely stupid.
Even if he wants to grouse, the figure is meaningless unless he has an equivalent number for men.
We need a bill for this? Good grief.
Only one in four women who hold a degree have a job in STEM. Perhaps because the foreign visa holders were given priority over ALL degree holders, not just females,
That statistic is just a dog whistle.
I don’t think that this is an appropriate us of federal power or resources.
But, as the mom of a very math-inclined daughter, there is a small, dark part of me rejoicing and saying, “Show me the money!” 😮
This is just disgusting! Trump signing an EO encouraging women to get in to science! DISGUSTING I TELL YOU!!!!
He had me until the word “unfair” appeared.
Sending rockets to Mars is difficult and confusing and women should not worry their pretty little heads over it.
Read the bill – https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/321/text/enr
It is one page, lists three educational programs and encourages continuing these programs. And, the new part is asking for a plan to identify any new ways to teach young people about space.
NASA already has a section on their website as outreach to kids – https://www.nasa.gov/offices/education/about/index.html
As long as the teaching materials are not political, I’m ok with some educational materials as a product of what we do.
Best womens’ day:
https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/fun/sandwich-day
I’m a lady with a STEM degree, and I have not regretted it for a minute.
I was also never discouraged by anybody except for 1) people, male and female, by own age, and 2) Liberal Arts a$$hole professors, who resented having the STEM majors “invade” their classes and top their courses.
I don’t know where the kids got it from, but they told me all kinds of nonsense about what I could and couldn’t do, being female, and all. That persisted all the way through law school. I learned to shrug my shoulders and say “watch my smoke.”
As for the idiot professors, I think it is a sin to discourage STEM students from taking arts courses. I had the music department insist that my teacher could not give me any better than a “B” for my voice class. For my Shakespeare class, I had a professor give me a “C” for and “A” take-home paper, so I went down to the Dean’s office, dropped the class, and left the paper with them to let them know the reason why I withdrew.
The chemistry, engineering, math, biology and physics professors were always positive and welcoming.
My undergrad degree was in neuroscience. But, I went into accounting (it was easy for me) after I got my MBA in the late 70s. My first job was with a Big 8 firm and I was the second women in the office. One senior told me that he preferred the females on his team since we were smarter than “the average bear” (male auditors).
During my first year, I was at an utility company and overheard the senior try to explain nuclear fuel to a second year. After I made a comment, I was then assigned to test audit the nuclear fuel inventory since I apparently was the only one who understood the calculations. That was very sad!
I was always told (by my teachers) that I could only be a secretary. I ended up with a double major in Finance and Economics. I put that to good use as the youngest (and only female) stockbroker in the firm. After leaving the market, I stayed home to raise and homeschool three children. Favorite classes? Honors Advanced Physics and Early Transcedental Calculus.
Affirmative discrimination is progressive.
Encouragement is positive progress.