Gender Gap In Education

The hard sciences are still a male dominance field. I happen to be a physics teacher, one of few female physics teachers, in a typically male dominated teaching subject. Even though there has been many advancements by women in the science field, we are still misrepresented and as an educator and a female science teacher, I have a goal to figure out why and how we can change that within my school. The goal of this action research assignment is to determine how to increase the number of female student population enrolling and interest in upper level science courses in the 11th and 12th grades. I have noticed lack of females enrolling in science Advanced Placement (AP) classes or dropping down or out of these classes due to lack of interest or believing it
They discuss how “high school years are actually more important than the college years in determining the size of the gender gap in STEM degrees” (Legewie & DiPrete, 2014, p. 260). Riegle-Crumb and Moore (2014) believe that high school physics, typically taught during junior or senior year, is the location at which the pattern of the gender gap starts to become more prevalent.
They both stress the importance of the environment the school creates in terms of STEM related curriculum. Legewie and DiPrete discuss the involvement of teachers and their role in building up female students’ confidence and importance of their role in these types of STEM fields and classes. Also, Riegle-Crumb and Moore, state the role of women in the community with occupations in STEM will have an increasing effect and decrease the gender gap. There needs to be more focus and involvement in creating an environment within the high school for female students to believe the hard sciences can be an option for