Why women in STEM on TV?
There are even those whom place a blame on women, saying you need to beat the odds and pursue science.
Yet we ignore the easiest way to showcase women in STEM, TV shows. There are numerous shows with men in STEM but few women. Women could easily be chosen to play the roles of a scientist in physics or biochemistry or engineer on a project over a male. Yet you don't see that very often. 60-65% of women are the viewership in the U.S.. Yet, only 22% of women in prime-time TV have speaking roles.
The TV is an easy target to look at the gender disparities. There are already a ton a STEM positions on display. You have ads and shows that gain a large audience; the longest running show in America is one with STEM displayed in it, N.C.I.S.. This allows a wide audience of people to watch and see women in STEM in action and allow younger women to pursue STEM. But when you think of STEM on TV you mostly hear of Macgyver, Bill Nye the Science Guy, the men of the Big Bang Theory. You think of a man in a white lab coat, this is due to the push of masculinity on STEM. The idea of women is to be a care giver and not to be a creator or discover and these are crucial to science, tech, math, and engineering.
The big push toward STEM is all about encouraging the youth into STEM, why not start this in something many do already, watch TV. It can be easy for a casting director or even a writer to write the part of a woman in as the place for a STEM position.
