Women make up just 34% of the workforce in professional STEM fields. In college, too, women are underrepresented: about 21% of engineering majors are women and around 19% of computer and information science majors are women. 

So, the question is: Why does this happen? Are women just less interested in these fields? 

Jennifer Hoffman, Shannon Murphy and Robin Tinghitella, all faculty in the University of Denver’s College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, answer that question with a resounding “NO.” 

Together at DU, Shannon, Jennifer and Robin co-host science summer camps for middle-school girls. And they are not only providing opportunities for girls to become acquainted with STEM fields, they’re also studying the campers’ relationships to science.   

In a recently published paper, the trio, along with outside colleagues, examine the effects of these science summer camps on girls’ relationship with science and their scientific self-efficacy by asking the girls a series of questions before and after their camp experiences. 

In this episode, Emma chats with the three female scientists about their experiences as women in STEM and why it’s so important to get girls interested in the sciences early in life. 

Jennifer Hoffman is a professor of physics and astronomy in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at the University of Denver. She holds the Womble Chair of Astronomy and directs DU's historic Chamberlin Observatory. Her research interests focus on the late stages of massive stellar evolution, in particular on the role of binary stars in shaping supernova explosions. Hoffman uses a combination of observational spectropolarimetry and 3-D computational modeling to explore these research questions. She sees her roles as an educator and mentor as a vital part of her scholarship. In all these arenas, Hoffman works to expand opportunities and remove barriers to participation in physics and astronomy for people from historically underrepresented groups. 

Robin Tinghitella is an associate professor of biological sciences in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at the University of Denver. As a behavioral ecologist, she works to understand how rapidly changing environments alter animal communication, particularly interactions between males and females. Researchers in her animal behavior lab use both insect and fish model systems and are supported by the National Science Foundation, the Morris Animal Foundation, the Society for the Study of Evolution, and the Animal Behavior Society (amongst others).  

Shannon Murphy is a professor of biological sciences in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at the University of Denver. She studies the ecology and evolution of interactions between plants and insects. Murphy works side by side with students to investigate how these plant-insect interactions are affected by global change. She works closely with undergraduate and graduate students to both teach them about and study the ecology and evolution of interactions between plants and insects, and together they investigate how these interactions are affected by global change. 

More Information: 

“STEM Summer Camp for Girls Positively Affects Self-Efficacy" by E. Dale Broder, Kirsten J. Fetrow, Shannon M. Murphy, Jennifer L. Hoffman, Robin M. Tinghitella 

AAUW: “The STEM Gap: Women and Girls in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics”