New research shows ‘exposure gap’ for Utah girls in STEM

LOGAN — Abigail Tyers didn’t always know she wanted a career working with Formula 1 race cars.

“If you would have asked me, astronaut, pilot, stand-up comedian at one point,” she said.

But she caught a vision of her strengths and interests, and now studies data analytics and mechanical engineering at Utah State University to one day work as a motorsports strategy engineer, to help drivers win their races.

As you might imagine, she’s one of the few females in her classes.

“More girls don’t go into these fields, because they’re not told about them,” she said.

She’s right, according to new data from Utah company YouScience. They surveyed more than 21,600 female students to find out why:

Women make up 57.4% of the workforce, but only 28% of the STEM workforce.

“Which is sad. We are a technology hub here in Utah,” Amy Miller-Weiland, VP of professional services and learning and development with YouScience, said. “There is a huge economy for them to be able to walk into those high paying, high demand, highly stable jobs, but they’re not interested.”

The findings are telling. YouScience research found that 9,642 of the girls have skills in computers and technology, but about 8%, or 692, are interested in it.

More than 5,150 show an aptitude in advanced manufacturing, and nearly 11%, or 526, have an interest.

Miller-Weiland said the problem is girls don’t know what these careers look like, nor do they know anyone like themselves who works in these fields.

“The more we can expose them to people who look like them, the more we’ll see them actually pursue this kind of thing,” Miller-Weiland said.

That’s exactly what happened to Abigail Tyers. She took YouScience’s Aptitude and Career Discovery Assessment which helps students determine their actual skills, not just what careers they think they like. From there, she attended an event sponsored by SheTech, where girls get exposure to careers and mentors.

Recalling that event and the influence it had on her life, Tyers became emotional. “Three thousand like-minded people. That’s powerful,” she said.

The YouScience assessment has proven to be such an effective tool to help students make better career choices, the state legislature funded it for every Utah public and charter middle and high school. Your child can take the assessment by talking to their school counselor.

Annual STEM Fest begins today