Laura Bottomley, Ph.D., Director, Engineering Education, Women in Engineering, and the Engineering Place at N.C. State University gave a keynote talk, What we still don’t get about girls and STEM, during the June 23-24, 2021 ASEE Pre-College Engineering Education Conference.

In her keynote, Dr. Bottomley informed the audience that there have been efforts to “interest” girls in STEM, increase their self-efficacy, strengthen them against microaggressions in the field, and more for the last 50 years.  Next, she posed a key question, “With so many intelligent people working on this, what are the disrupters and stoppages keeping us from making that difference?” 

Dr. Bottomley went on to briefly address why all the role models and outreach in the world may not be able to make a change and then suggested ways to work together to change the tide. Her keynote talk can be viewed here.