QUICK! PICTURE A SCIENTIST!

If you were asked to draw a picture of a scientist, what would you draw? Think about it for a minute.

When faced with this challenge, many girls draw pictures of men who look like Albert Einstein. University of Michigan professor Jacquelynne Eccles says, “Young people have an image of scientists as eccentric old men with wild hair … deep in thought, alone.”

Is it any surprise, then, that girls and women at all levels of science are lagging behind their male counterparts?

Sure — there have been a lot of gains, but girls are still opting out of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) classes in school and, as a result, men far outnumber women in technical fields.

And even though the number of women earning high-level degrees in STEM fields has increased, tenured female faculty in four-year institutions in many of those fields are few and biases still exist.

As the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation puts it, “while record numbers of girls are expressing interest, too few are considering a STEM field for a career — and that’s a problem for everyone who cares about the future of our economy and our world. In order to create gender balance in the STEM workforce and foster the innovative thinking we will need to power our future, we need to actively encourage girls to pursue their interests and abilities in STEM.”

Read the full article "6 Things Parents Can Do to Get Their Daughters Excited About STEM" at the Huffington Post.