RTM Engineering Consultants continues to be an advocate in championing women engineers and encouraging more girls to get involved in careers focused on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields. We understand that providing consistent, reliable and innovative design solutions to clients comes from a comprehensive staff of expert engineers that consist of both men and women.
According to the National Girls Collaborative Project, a program hoping to effectively reach and serve underrepresented girls in STEM, women make up half of the total U.S. college-educated workforce, however, only 29% of them are present in the science and engineering workforce.
Initiatives like that of Melinda Gates, which focuses on getting more women working in technology and getting them to stay there, can be the first step in creating positive change. Known for her impressive philanthropy work around the nation, Gates now is dedicating her resources to tackle gender inequality in the tech industry.
“When you look in the labs at who’s working on artificial intelligence (AI), you can find one woman here, and one woman there. You’re not even finding three or four in labs together,” Gates told Backchannel, a highly respected business and tech publication that dives deep into the culture and stories of the tech industry. “The other thing I know from working around the world is that women truly only get empowered when there’s a collective of them.”
Her first goal is to highlight women in the industry who can become role models for the younger generation. Although Gates is still in the research stage of her new initiative, she is interested in hearing from those passionate about STEM, and Backchannel has compiled comments to write up a letter of advice for the philanthropist.
RTM is excited to see even more work being done to encourage young girls and women to get into STEM-related careers. Last year, we participated in an ‘Introduce a Girl to Engineering’ event, held during National Engineering Week. At that event, we hosted hands-on interactive games and experiments with a princess theme to get the kids thinking strategically.
To learn more about STEM and how you can get involved in local initiatives, contact a member of our team.