Women in STEM: Breaking Barriers, Building Futures

STEMWomenPK aims to empower, connect, and support women in STEM fields across Pakistan. Through mentorship, networking, and skill-building initiatives, we will create opportunities for professional growth, collaboration, and leadership development. Our activities will include mentorship programs, knowledge-sharing sessions, career guidance, and advocacy for gender equity in STEM. By fostering a supportive community, we aspire to bridge the gender gap and inspire the next generation of women leaders in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Bridging Gender gap in STEM Pakistan

In present age STEM (Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) pervades every part of our lives. Science and Technology is ubiquitous in every aspect of our lives. Engineering is a basic design of every discipline construct and Mathematics is mother of all Sciences. In short, STEM is the means for better future. Today, role of STEM is even more critical than before i-e to eradicate hunger, poverty, disease, pollution and injustice investment in STEM is the only way forward. In particular for females, STEM education provides much needed means for improving a self-image, it makes them resourceful, help them contribute to solve important problems.

According to UNESCO, in Pakistan the ratio between male and female students is quite low among university students, the field of natural sciences is reported to have only 40% women students, while medical sciences have 45%, engineering has 21% and agricultural sciences have only 12%. According to the World Economic Forum, only 4.9% of engineering jobs are held by women in Pakistan. The numbers are particularly low in the energy sector with only 3% female engineers in the power transmission sector. The field of artificial intelligence has also seen few numbers of women engineers, contributing only 22% of the workforce.

Fewer Role Models

Out of many factors, one key factor discouraging females selecting STEM is fewer role models. Girls have fewer role models to stimulate their interest in these fields as there are a few examples of female scientists and engineers one find in books, media and popular culture

In order to encourage women to opt STEM (both Students and Faculty) in Pakistan, we propose to organise workshop and related activities to promote mentorship, sponsorship and networking from female role models in general and members AlumNode in particular.

Key Factors

Key focus areas of the workshop will be

Emphasize strong and visible role models of women in math and science fields.
To promote growth mindset that empower girls to embrace challenges
Create outreach opportunities for girls in STEM.
Creating strong linkages and networks to support girls in STEM.

Main Objective

Main objective is to address gender barriers in the scientific and academic communities in Pakistan. We aim to highlight the challenges faced by girls in the STEM fields in general and how girls in Pakistan relate to these issues. We plan to attract as many female role models in STEM to share their journey and inspire girls in Pakistan to choose STEM as a career. In general, our ambition is to establish a strong foundation for sustainable outreach linkages in order to reduce gender gap in STEM