The Future We Dream of: The Leadership of Women in STEM

Andia Latifi Meybodi (Criminology and Political Science, University of Melbourne)

My name is Andia and I am a Bachelor of Arts student at the University of Melbourne, majoring in Criminology and Political Science. In this piece, I have reflected on the importance of women’s leadership in a STEM context, by basing my reflection on the works of two of my amazing friends in BioDesign Innovation.

‘Women in STEM’ is a phrase that carries a lot of weight, but I never realised why that was the case until I heard the word intersectionality for the first time in one of my introductory social theory classes. The word refers to the ways in which intersections of ability, race, gender, and other social categories work to create deeper levels of disadvantage or privilege.

But how does the discussion of women’s leadership in STEM fit in this narrative?

To unpack this, I reached out to two of my friends to talk about their latest project in BioDesign Innovation. The first words I heard when I asked them what the project was about was “a hundred and fifty thousand children die from meningitis every year and suitable diagnostic tools are wildly inaccurate and difficult. What is worse is that the costly procedures repel a lot of people in countries where the healthcare system is not strong.” The aim of the project is to make procedures more accessible for everyone by repurposing existing technologies to guide and facilitate the diagnosis of meningitis. When I asked why this issue had been ignored for so long, the market was to blame. The market for paediatric technologies is small, which means children’s needs are often ignored.

It was only the start of the conversation, but intersectionality was already echoing through my mind. It was a project created and executed by women in a male-dominated field, aiming to tackle health outcome disparities between different classes, countries, and age-groups.

“Why is STEM male-dominated?” I asked.

Unexpectedly, the answer is not simple. Diversity in STEM classrooms is not always the main problem. What we often lose sight of is representation amongst leaders and mentors. As women, we often look up to women. But there are never enough people to look up to.

In addition to gender disparities, current dominant paradigms prioritise market-based profits in the field of health technology. This also means that respectful communication, humanitarianism, passion, and innovation often get lost in the fiscal discourses of market competition.

To shift these paradigms, we must firstly shift our focus to creating spaces for women’s leadership in STEM. Where intersectionality is concerned, one change in the narrative leads to another. Promoting the leadership of women in STEM is not only about advancements in technology and innovation. It is about not losing sight of the significance of women’s successes in male-dominated fields. It is about not losing diversity of ideas, perspectives, and concepts. It is about destroying paradigms that hold us back as a society only to rebuild a world and a future that we have always dreamed of.