Ireland has made a drastic effort in recent times to encourage young women to pursue a stem (science, technology, engineering & maths) career.
Three quarters, that’s 75% of the Stem workforce is dominated by males.
The revelation comes as over 6,000 girls in Transition Year attended the “I wish” events that took place in the RDS Dublin and in The City Hall, Cork. The events were sponsored by Dell EMC and VMware in association with the Science Foundation Ireland.
The idea behind these events is to promote these Stem careers by showcasing role models in the industry including young scientist winner, Ciara Judge, Dr.Pixie McKenna, Dr Jessamyn Fairfield and Sonya Lennon.
Co-founder of the event Caroline O’Driscoll mentioned Ireland has made major strides in encouraging women to enter the greater science field but there is a lot more to be done.
“Employment within the general Stem field here in Ireland is around 25% for women, ” she said.
Research has shown that in general students that attend these events tend to go home with a wealth of knowledge and many of them end up changing their choice of career.
She added, “A survey has indicated that 60% of students change their subject choice after attending here”