Trenton, NJ, December 1, 2014 – Starting in January, Million Women Mentors (MWM), a partner to STEMconnectors, will come to New Jersey to recruit, support, and partner with NJ businesses, academia, government, nonprofit, and professional societies for mentors and coaches for youth and adults. The work will lead to 21st century STEM careers.
Million Women Mentors will support the engagement of one million science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) mentors (male and female) to increase the interest and confidence of girls and young women to persist and succeed in STEM programs and careers. MWM is an initiative of STEMconnector® in collaboration with over 50 leading national organizations.
Young women are less likely than their male counterparts to work in STEM fields. In fact, just 24 percent of women work in STEM fields. The great news is that STEM careers allow women to grow closer to pay equity by earning 92 cents for every dollar male-STEM counterparts earn versus 76 cents in other fields. What’s more, 80 percent of the fastest growing occupations in the United States depend on mastery of mathematics and scientific knowledge and skills and 71% of all jobs will require STEM skills.
Through the engagement of one million mentors, our goals are to:
Million Women Mentors will support the engagement of one million science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) mentors (male and female) to increase the interest and confidence of girls and young women to persist and succeed in STEM programs and careers. MWM is an initiative of STEMconnector® in collaboration with over 50 leading national organizations.
Young women are less likely than their male counterparts to work in STEM fields. In fact, just 24 percent of women work in STEM fields. The great news is that STEM careers allow women to grow closer to pay equity by earning 92 cents for every dollar male-STEM counterparts earn versus 76 cents in other fields. What’s more, 80 percent of the fastest growing occupations in the United States depend on mastery of mathematics and scientific knowledge and skills and 71% of all jobs will require STEM skills.
Through the engagement of one million mentors, our goals are to:
- Increase the percentage of U.S. high school girls planning to pursue STEM careers, currently 13%.
- Increase the percentage of U.S. young women pursuing undergraduate degrees in STEM fields in higher education up from 45%.
- Increase the percentage of U.S. women staying in STEM careers, currently 24%, through a work force mentoring, paid internship and sponsorship programming.
- Lead a national call to action for corporations to join MWM and capture metrics around mentoring girls and young women in STEM.
- Provide an automated, scalable and easy-to-use platform to eliminate barriers and facilitate large numbers of STEM professionals (male and female) with tools to becoming effective mentors in partnership with 50 national organizations reaching over 22 million girls.
- Match participating corporations to scaled non-profit partners and educational institutions in need of STEM mentors and role models.
- Recognize best practice and ‘who is doing what’ in mentoring girls (middle school through careers) in STEM learning.
