Last week Stephen Metcalfe, local MP for South Basildon
and East Thurrock, pledged to help put the Her into Hero as part of Little Miss
Geek’s campaign to celebrate our female heroes past and present, and to
encourage more girls to take up STEM subjects.
Mr Metcalfe responded to the rallying cry of Little Miss
Geek along with MPs from across the house and hopes to help inspire to inspire
young girls to become our female heroes of the future, as a part of Ada
Lovelace Day on October 15th.
Little Miss Geek is providing resources to teachers so
they can incorporate female heroes into the curriculum and their assemblies.
The campaign is asking for schools across the UK to host a HER in Hero
assembly, and we have already reached 5,000 girls.
Currently, the UK’s tech workforce is only 17% female,
and over the last 10 years this has been dropping by 0.5% each year. If the UK
continues at this rate, by 2043 there will be less than 1% women working in
technology despite more women being big consumers of technology.
Technology is shaping the future for all industries, so
it is essential we increase diversity as this leads to greater innovation -
addressing technology’s gender divide is simply smart economics.
Mr Metcalfe has been involved in a number of initiatives
to raise the profile of STEM subjects in schools including Science Grrl which
aims to raise female participation. He commented: “It is vital that the gender
divide in the STEM workforce bridged. Initiatives such as this help to do this
by breaking down the stereotypes and giving young women role models to look up
and career paths to aspire to.”
“I will continue to work hard on this area and hope that
young women throughout South Basildon and East Thurrock will be seriously
considering careers in Science, Technology, Mathematics and Engineering.”
For more information, go to: http://littlemissgeek.com/her-in-hero.
