Only one in thirteen New Zealand young women feel confident enough to have a career in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering or Maths). Sunsilk plans to raise awareness of the issue and identify what may be holding girls back in their pursuit of a STEM career and whether a mother’s influence can change the situation.
Commissioned by Sunsilk as part of its Rethink Pink campaign, latest research shows that only 7.6% of New Zealand women feel empowered to pursue a career in Science, Technology, Engineering or Maths. That’s only one in thirteen women!
There is an obvious gender imbalance in STEM study choices in our country with female students dropping from 41.5% in Year 12 to only 19.8% in higher (tertiary) education. Postgraduate and Masters/PhD show an even more dramatic decrease, with only 4.6% and 2.4% of women respectively.
Its also been revealed that the most important influence on a young woman is her mother. But Kiwi mums feel largely unequipped to support their daughters when it comes to STEM subjects, with only one in twelve (7.8%) having a strong understanding and knowledge of STEM subjects.
To help local girls and their mums build their practical STEM skills and self-confidence, Sunsilk has partnered with social enterprise Girl Geek Academy that is led by five women co-founders and was created to increase the number of women with successful STEM careers worldwide. Together, they’re launching a series of free interactive online workshops in September and October 2021.
Participants will explore the science of hair, use tech to code a mother-daughter videogame, engineer their own shampoo bottle and use maths to “rethink pink” and smash gender stereotypes.
Girl Geek Academy co-founder Sarah Moran says: “Girl Geek Academy is on a mission to teach one million women technology skills by 2025. We are building a future where women play a crucial role in developing innovations and solutions that ultimately shape lives; our partnership with Sunsilk is another step toward that.”
Natalie Buckley, Sunsilk ANZ says : “Through Rethink Pink, we want to build the confidence of both mums and their daughters, and show STEM is accessible and achievable to everyone. STEM can be fun, relevant to daily life, and creative, and we want to help build a generation of young and older women who are inspired now, and into the future.”
After mothers (68.3%), the secondary influences on young New Zealand women aged 16-25 are female social influencers (36.6%), followed by their sisters (32.2%). The platforms this age group turns to for female inspiration are Instagram (64.4%), YouTube (44%) and Facebook (42%).
Natalie Buckley, Sunsilk ANZ Research and Development Director says: “The future is digital, we’ve known this for some time. As New Zealand and the world increasingly rely on science, technology, engineering and maths, we need to ensure our digital creations, platforms and systems reflect the preferences of our whole population. We need New Zealand women from a variety of backgrounds to contribute and feel they are a part of this creative process – for themselves and for the rest of us, too.”
Visit girlgeekacademy.com/sunsilk and register your attendance
for the Sunsilk x Girl Geek Academy STEM School Holiday Workshops.