The WISE campaign seeks to achieve gender balance in STEM industries by conducting schools outreach, showcasing role models and providing consultancy and training.
Drawing from research seeking to understand why certain groups are under-represented in STEM, WISE has launched its ‘People Like Me’ programme to show young girls that they could find fulfilling careers in STEM.
Psychological research shows that girls are more likely to identify themselves using adjectives, whereas boys tend to use verbs. Science and maths careers are usually articulated through verbs – focusing on what engineers DO rather than describing their attributes and personalities. This leads many girls to discount themselves from STEM careers at an early stage as they think these jobs are ‘not for people like me’.
People like Me seeks to show young women that they can be happy and successful in a STEM career by aligning their attributes with a certain characteristic which corresponds to a range of jobs. For instance, someone with the ‘Explorer’ personality type is inquisitive and practical and good at experimenting, listening and problem-solving, making them suited to a job as a Chief Engineer, a Quantity Surveyor, an Environmental Manager and so on.
WISE has released a People like Me pack specifically tailored to jobs in construction. The pack contains lesson plans, guidance on the quiz and case studies of women in the industry and their personality types. Ideally, sessions will be conducted with the help of a trained People like Me role model.
To find out more, click the link below.
Did you find this article helpful?
Please rate this article
Loading...
