Ever since she was a teenager, J'nea Wiggins has loved the challenge of math and science and the feeling of getting a problem or question right. Since then, she knew she wanted to pursue biomedical engineering for the rest of her life.
The world of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) is historically a male-dominated field. Roughly 28 % more men are in a STEM discipline regarding technology, according to a 2023 study conducted by Gallup. Around 10 % more men are in fields revolving mathematics. While there are distinctions between the disciplines, a gender gap still exists overall.
However, women at USC are navigating STEM fields, contributing to their education and research. Through organizations such as the Alliance for Women in STEM and Alpha Omega Epsilon, female students are creating communities to support their professional growth and tackle the challenges of these fields.
Overcoming Barriers
Wiggins is a third-year biomedical engineering student and co-president of the Alliance for Women in STEM. The organization provides resources and a supportive community for women taking on STEM fields, Wiggins said.
As of Nov. 2024, women make up roughly 34 % of the workforce in STEM fields and represent 16 % of engineers and architects, according to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
Wiggins said certain stereotypes have caused a barrier for women in STEM.
“The main barrier, in my opinion, is this preconceived notion that men are smarter, or men just do things better than women do,” Wiggins said.
Biases can affect the opportunities women are given, relegating them to roles that don’t align with their full potential or capabilities, Wiggins said. While respectable careers, women can get stuck in positions such as the front desk or organizing tasks, while men take on the technical and leadership roles, she said.
Wiggins also said women shouldn't be put into one box when it comes to the positions they hold in the workplace because diverse workplaces are superior to ones where everyone has the same ideas.
"Women may have a different perspective ... You want to be able to bring different perspectives and different narratives to the problem, solution, project, whatever the case may be," Wiggins said.
As an African American woman in STEM, there are additional challenges when facing both gender and racial biases, Wiggins said. The best way to build empathy for one another is to have a diverse environment, regardless of race or gender, she said. Wiggins said diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts are misunderstood through media as being an unfair advantage to people of color.
“DEI doesn’t mean we are negotiating quality of work... We are giving everybody an equal opportunity to be successful,” Wiggins said.
O’Malley Jenkins graduated from USC in 2024 as a cyber intelligence student, she was also a president of the Alliance for Women in STEM at USC. She said some of the disadvantages women in STEM face, while subtle, still create an impact.
"I think at this point any barriers are going to be more microaggressions,” Jenkins said. "My name is pretty gender neutral, so in emails, people reach out and call me ‘Mr. Jenkins' ... I've been told on numerous occasions that I'm more likely to get a job in the field just because I am a woman."
While some kids were busy playing doctor or teacher, Jenkins pictured herself as a receptionist simply because it was a career that would give her a lot of computer access. These childhood daydreams would one day turn into a career in cyber intelligence.
Jenkins was one of the only girls in her computer science class during her freshman year at USC. She said the overt or subtle judgments made in the classroom were not accurate for her capabilities.
"I think it can also feel scary to ask a question because when you are one of three girls, you want to prove something by being there," Jenkins said.
Instead of having that fear as a woman, Jenkins said students should encourage conversations about speaking up because someone else probably has the same question too.
Methods for Overcoming Barriers
Jenkins said promoting and being a part of clubs is a great outlet for women in STEM fields. Besides developing professionally, the club wants to help women form friendships and make connections with other women in STEM.
Her role as president of the Alliance for Women in STEM is coordinating events and overseeing the executive board. Last semester, two women from Prisma Health came in as guest speakers to talk about the transition from college to working in the health field. Other community service projects include walking dogs from the Final Victory Animal Rescue, working with the Oliver Gospel homeless shelter and Midlands Orphan Relief.
Alliance for Women in STEM provides research projects, grant proposals, graduate and medical school applications and scholarship opportunities. The organization also offers resume workshops and interviewing techniques taught by professionals from the Career Center.
Chloe Wheeler is a fourth-year graduate student with a degree in integrated information technology. She remains at USC, earning her master's in international business. Wheeler is the president of Alpha Omega Epsilon, a professional and social sorority supporting women in the fields of STEM.
Wheeler said her career path started out as a curiosity for coding games on an iPad as a child.
She was inspired by her mom who worked in enterprise data systems, and knew this would be something she wanted to pursue. Wheeler realized her analytical skills would be a fit for a career in integrated information technology.
Wheeler said Alpha Omega Epsilon’s mission is to provide a community where women in STEM can grow professionally and connect through social events. A few years ago, Alpha Omega Epsilon organized a panel of women to come to USC to answer questions about their professions as women in STEM and their success stories from engineering to the medical field.
Alpha Omega Epsilon’s efforts include engaging with younger girls in partnership with the College of Engineering and Computing. The professional sorority holds an annual K-12 STEM project teaching day to spark an interest in the fields. Activities include making aluminum foil boats and learning about Newton’s laws of motion through building race cars and having competitions.
Wheeler said she has witnessed a growing number of women entering the information technology field of study as each year went by, most performing at a high level, leading to the idea that notable progress has been made in terms of the representation of women.
"I saw it go from me being the only girl in the class to (having) four, five or six girls in my classes, and all of us were probably top of the class, performing really well," Wheeler said. "Women are just as smart, just as capable ... It's good that you see more women going into these fields."
Molly Conway is a fourth-year biochemistry and molecular biology student. She is vice president of Alpha Omega Epsilon and has been a part of the organization since her freshman year.
Conway was first inspired in middle school by the groundbreaking work behind Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR), a technology advancement used to modify DNA. She read about the female scientists behind CRISPR winning a Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Conway said reading about these women achieve their first award in chemistry motivated her to keep working towards a career in STEM.
Women mentors in STEM
Second-year biology student Lena Richardson's deep love for science began in middle school after she watched a documentary about genetically modified organisms and plants. She found the process of science interesting, much like working through a puzzle..
Richardson is co-president of the Alliance for Women in STEM. She said it's important to find a female mentor.
"Finding mentors to help lead you into the position you want to be in is something that is really useful," Richardson said. "I think a big step for women in STEM is just getting more women through there that can then help younger generations and encourage more established women in STEM to help those who are starting out."
Richardson found a successful woman in the fields of STEM to mentor her throughout a research project. Alissa Richmond Armstrong is an assistant professor at USC with a research concentration in stem cell and developmental biology as well as the biology of cellular stress. Armstrong served as a mentor for Richardson throughout her research in biology.
Armstrong is guiding Richardson in her lab research. Specifically, Richardson and Armstrong are studying ovaries and fat and trying to understand the changes of the fat by silencing specific signaling pathways between them. The lab work involves looking through a microscope at fat cells and categorizing how each one affects the ovary.
Ashley Gess is an assistant professor of STEM and a co-coordinator of the Ed.D. in integrated STEM education, essentially training teachers to better teach students in STEM disciplines.
Gess said joy and creativity should also be involved in learning in STEM. Gess would often think about molecules moving in terms of music, she said, showing a different learning perspective to an analytical field. She applied this to her teaching, allowing her students to describe the steps of bone ossification through a dance, poem or other medium.
When Gess was teaching her biology classes, she noticed in labs that women were taking notes, and men were handling the experiments. Recognizing the pattern, she assigned groups, which allowed for everyone to be included in the lab activities. Gess aimed to challenge gender stereotypes and balance out the opportunities in a laboratory setting.
Whether entering into the STEM fields through a microscope or a computer, Richardson offers her advice to young women out there thinking about pursuing STEM fields.
“Be sure of yourself and confident. There's so much out there that women can accomplish and can do and so much that just has not been done yet,” Richardson said.