It has been widely reported for many years now that there is a significant gender imbalance in STEM fields. A number of different initiatives were launched, which aimed to decrease this imbalance and to open the STEM fields to those that have not traditionally been attracted to these roles. For example, The Beech Hill School has participated in the FIRST Robotics program for over a decade. Our teams have generally been very well integrated in terms of gender, and the leaders of the team have often been young women. Based on the widespread participation and popularity of programs like ours, one would imagine that the gender gap might be closing.

As I have shared several times, my son is in his first year at Washington & Lee University, a liberal arts school in Virginia, where there are slightly more female students than males. I was shocked to learn that there were less than five female students in his Introduction to Engineering course, which has a total enrollment of just over 30. While this is only one instance, I still found it hard to believe that the imbalance was so pronounced.

Fortunately, at the middle school level, Ms. Fries has boys and girls beating down the door to be part of the robotics and math programs at BHS. We will continue to encourage all our students to strive for their dreams in any and all disciplines!