STEM refers to science, technology, engineering, and math. Finding and hiring women faculty members in STEM is important for a variety of reasons, not least because research shows women students benefit from learning in environments where there are women role models. But it is very difficult to hire women faculty in many STEM fields - particularly engineering fields - because of the relatively low number of women PhD graduates in some fields. A quote from NSF:
"By broad S&E field, women earned relatively high percentages of the doctoral degrees in psychology (67 percent), the biological sciences (43 percent), and the social sciences (42 percent); they earned lower percentages of the doctoral degrees in the physical sciences (23 percent), mathematics and computer science (22 percent), and engineering (15 percent)..."
See: http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/nsf03312/c5/c5s2.htm
A new educational focus is emerging in some institutions of higher education. These schools are taking an interdisciplinary approach to educating tomorrow’s information professionals, by mixing together science, technology, social science, and design. These new programs are beginning to educate students in these new professions – not as programmers or coders or software developers, but as professional analysts, architects, and creators of our planet’s critical information infrastructure.
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