We (Don't) Need More Women in STEM

In our rampant era of equality, feminism, and political correctness, a popular social topic that has spurred many discussions is how to lure more women and girls into STEM. You can find numerous initiatives, articles, and research that supports data on the underrepresentation of women in these fields, and advocates pressing on the need for greater female participation, all in the name of female empowerment. I, for one, am baffled by all the discussion on how to get more women in these fields. As unpopular as it may sound, I don't believe we need more women in STEM. In fact, I'm not a proponent of pressing on a group of people to do something just for the sake of achieving equality, empowerment, or any other politically-correct construct, especially if none of it leads to tangible results. Here are the reasons why I'm against this popular notion of pushing women into STEM.

1. It's false empowerment. Let's state the obvious... STEM is a male-dominated category. From college majors to actual STEM careers, it's no news that males outnumber females by a (very) wide margin. There are many theories on why females are so underrepresented, but here's my not-so-scientific theory; STEM simply doesn't appeal to majority of women, plain and simple. It's widely perceived that women gravitate to jobs that involves interpersonal skills, as in anything that has element of human contact. STEM is a mentally rigorous and competitive field requiring high level of analytics and navigating of complex systems - all which are stereotypically masculine skill sets ( notice I said 'stereotypically'). Unless there's major changes to human nature, women aren't suddenly going to flock to these highly technical and analytical fields. That being said, pushing women ( or anyone for that matter) against their natural inclination doesn't do anyone good. In fact, it's false empowerment - what kind of message are we sending to a girl if we tell her she won't be useful in society unless she becomes an engineer, when she has zero aptitude to become one? Is that supposed to be empowerment? I'd call that depowerment - it's a surefire way to make her feel marginalized.

2. 50-50 doesn't mean much. I get it - 'closing the gender gap' sounds like an attractive concept, doesn't it? 50-50 sounds nice and evenly balanced. But how does this goal translate to actual outcome? Say a company A has even number of male and female engineers whereas company B has 90 percent males and 10 percent females ( which is closer to the norm). Unless company A can prove that they can perform better than company B as a result of having more females on board, (such as making better products or generating more profit, ) it just shows that 50-50 is a cosmetic statistic that's used to garner good publicity. It's mere virtue-signaling to show the world how inclusive and egalitarian a company or an organization appears on surface. Besides, if achieving a gender balance in STEM is so important, then where's the similar movement in other traditionally male-heavy jobs? Shouldn't we also push women to become construction workers, oil riggers, auto mechanics, plumbers, and forestry loggers? ( You get my point)

3. There's already plenty of men who are in STEM. You would probably raise your eyebrows at me if I said 'we need to push more men into childcare and nanny services'. Your obvious response would be... 'why?' Some of you might blatantly reply 'that's a woman's job!' The point is, there's already plenty of women in these line of works. Pushing men into an already female-saturated field isn't going to serve much purpose or produce better results. Similarly, STEM already has plenty of men as it is. And as STEM becomes 'jobs of the future', there will be even more men who will fill these roles.

Bottom line: Leave society the way it is; let women ( and men) empower themselves by pursuing interests that come naturally to them as individuals. After all, everyone has their own aptitudes, strengths, and limitations that manifests into interests and careers. If there are women who want to pursue STEM, then more power to them! However, no one (much less an entire gender) should be pressed to do something just because someone decides there's a gap that needs to be closed.

An op-ed with a slightly unpopular opinion