In a speech to the United Nations, actress Emma Watson candidly expressed her perspective in regard to feminism, women rights, and gender equality. The speech, which called for action from men, women and the spectrum of genders, presented a realistic and somewhat grim picture of the current status of women’s rights around the world. Today, in United States we face very limited progress towards the inclusion of women in fields such as Mathematics, Computer Science, and Engineering. Presented in this article are specific statistics of women with degrees in Science and Engineering that illustrate an asymptote in progress in math-intensive fields. I conclude with ideas to inspire, integrate, and retain more women in Engineering, so that STEM may serve as a passport towards equality.  

Estefanía Ortiz, a Hackathon fan and young entrepreneur, grew up in the town of Guaynabo Puerto Rico and went to the Marista private school for most of her schooling. Estefanía finished her last high school year doing home schooling, and today she is a sophomore majoring Computer Science at Stanford University.  Estefanía told me that a transformational moment in her life was a conversation she had with her math teacher.

It is 9:00 AM, I get a call from the school saying: “Please come to pick up your child who is not feeling well and is throwing up”. My place of work is 45 minutes away, I call my spouse. “Can you pick up Sofia? She is not feeling well” I say. My spouse is in the middle of presentations with her students. We calculate together what is less damaging: to cancel my day meetings which can be postponed or to cancel the student presentations with more complicated logistics. We decide is better to postpone my meetings, I move all the meetings and jump on the road. I call the doctor for an appointment and we go from school, to home, to the doctor in less than 30 minutes.