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The year is 2016, and female scientists, CEOs, and political leaders are pretty run of the mill. Nonetheless, women make up only about a quarter of the workforce in STEM jobs (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and the gender gap is still a very real issue. To help overcome the challenge, a host of companies and projects have realized that girls can be so much more than princesses - and now offer a wide range of awesome products to let young girls realize their full potential.
1. YELLOW SCOPE SCIENCE KITS FOR GIRLS
Founded by female scientists and mothers Kelly McCollum and Marcie Colledge, Yellow Scope wants to spark curiosity that will inspire young girls to pursue careers in the STEM fields. The brains behind Yellow Scope discovered that girls learn best when they can approach projects in a creative and open-ended way, and designed their award-winning chemistry kit to engage the scientific and creative minds of 8-12 year old girls.
2. PRINCESS AWESOME’S CLOTHES FOR SUPER GIRLS
Lots of young girls love dresses and rainbows and flowers and pink. And many of those very same girls also love cars and robots and pirates. Confronted with that fact, Rebecca Melsky, mother of two kids, one day thought to herself "it's too bad, that there are no dresses with robots on them, because she would totally wear one. Or a dress with a truck. Or a dinosaur. Or an airplane. Or a pirate. Or a train. But those don't exist." Not long afterwards, she founded Princess Awesome together with a friend to change just that. Their innovative line of children’s clothing aims to break gender stereotypes and sends the important message to young girls that they alone get to decide what it means to be girly.
3. GOLDIEBLOX BUILDER'S KIT
Only 14% percent of all engineers worldwide are women and GoldieBlox is determined to change the equation by giving girls an introduction to mechanical engineering from a young age. What started as a small startup on Kickstarter has since grown into a full-fledged product line of awesome empowering toys that sit next to Barbies on Toys "R" Us shelves, teaching girls about problem-solving and the basics of construction.
4. ROOMINATE ENGINEERING KITS
The brainchild of Stanford-educated engineers Alice Brooks and Bettina Chen, Roominate teaches girls aged 6-10 about engineering with a unique blend of building, circuits, design, crafts, storytelling, and creativity. Using motor and light circuits, modular furniture building pieces and walls, Roominate empowers kids to build endless amazing creations! While Roominate is marketed for girls, Brooks and Chen stress that they are 100% on board with supporting boys too!
5. GIRLS THINK OF EVERYTHING
Countless women throughout history have brought us ingenious inventions - such as the medical syringe, kevlar, the rotary engine, fire escapes, and many, many more . This outstanding collective biography of women and girls who changed the world with their inventions encourages girls from ages 10-14 to start inventing themselves and even offers a list of organizations with postal and Internet addresses to help them get started.
6. GIRLS WHO CODE
Girls Who Code has an impressive success story. In just a few short years, this non-profit organization dedicated to closing the gender gap in technology, has gone from 20 girls in New York to over 10,000 girls in 42 states across the United States. Through summer camps focussing on computer programming, Girls Who Code aims to get girls interested in coding and also offers a chance to interact with successful women who have carved out a career for themselves in the field. The organization’s success speaks for itself, with over 90% of its summer camp participants saying they are planning to major or minor in Computer Sciences or a closely-related field.
