The article by Robert N Charette, contributing editor of IEEE Spectrum, posted on their site on August 30, 2013 has certainly drawn much interest. I and colleagues of mine do look at this issue much differently. The “shortage”as defined in Mr. Charette’s article may or not really exist. The definition of STEM may be problematical. There is much to be said for his suggestion near the end that there is a STEM knowledge shortage.
The shortage in our minds is really in certain segments of the population. To be sure there is an undeniable and very real shortage in the number of females studying and in engineering and computer science careers. There is also an even more extreme shortage in the number of males and females of color in both of these fields. These are certainly shortages that need to be rectified for a number of reasons.
Just today in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel there was a featured story of an all-girls high school engineering class being offered in Kewaskum, WI, about .40 miles north-northwest of Milwaukee, WI. An early paragraph in the article really “says it all” about the shortage in this case of females in engineering.
Women comprise more than 20% of engineering school graduates but only 11% of practicing engineers, according to the National Science Foundation. Only about 30% of the 14 million Americans who work in manufacturing are women, a study from the National Women’s Law Center noted.
This article which interviews the teachers and creators of this class as well as engineers and collegiate engineering faculty is definitely worth taking a look at. These shortages are very real.
<http://www.jsonline.com/business/kewaskum-high-school-launches-all-female-engineering-class-b99101148z1-224720152.html>
