Even in 2017, science, technology, engineering and math continue to be dominated by men. While record numbers of women are majoring in these subjects in college, the workforce is a different story: Just 13% of engineers in the US are women, and women make up a mere 26% of those working in computing. Studies show that young women in these fields continue to be pushed out by harassment and bias, including continued questioning of their expertise. And while women have made some of the 20th century's most important contributions to STEM, from writing the code that put the Apollo on the moon to Nobel-winning medical research, their legacies are often downplayed or forgotten.
This is why we decided to create, Wired Women, a video series that highlights the work of young women making groundbreaking contributions to their communities through STEM. We hoped that by showcasing these stories we might inspire other young women to pursue their dreams in these fields, and help push back against some of the stereotypes that still hold women back in STEM.
Our videos featured four stories of women working to improve their communities through STEM work:
We decided to feature non-typical stories from the engineering and tech worlds: rather than feature women in power positions in Silicon Valley, we wanted to find the kinds of characters whose stories are often overlooked and who are trying to make change at a community level. Our characters are all young, are predominantly women of color, and are all doing work with a clear social purpose.
We created the videos in a hybrid format that blended documentary filming techniques, such as the incorporation of field audio and high-quality cinematography, with social media video techniques, including text on screen, graphics and punchy timing. We settled on this format to appeal to younger audiences on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, and hopefully start a conversation.
To date, the series has garnered approximately 2.5M views on Facebook and YouTube video players. Additionally, we saw a tremendous amount of positive comments from people cheering on the subjects of our videos. Many girls and women talked about how inspired they were by their work. We also saw support from a number of organizations and influencers who shared the videos including 305.org, Jorge Ramos, and Society for Science & the Public.
