The Montreal Massacre

Today is the anniversary of the Montreal Massacre which occurred in1989. On the 6th December a man murdered 14 women and injured 9 others along with 4 men in the Engineering Building of Montreal’s School of Engineering. His attack was motivated by anger towards feminists. The murdered women came to represent the injustices of systemic violence against women and became an example of how gender stereotyping can lead to violence against women.

Women are underrepresented in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) fields in education and in employment. Research shows that in Australia, 18.6 per cent of boys undertook STEM subjects in their final year of secondary school compared with 13.8 per cent of girls. Only 28 per cent of employed STEM-qualified Australian workforce aged 15 years and over were female in 2011 compared to 55 per cent for all fields in the tertiary qualified population. This figure stood at 14 and 86 per cent for females and males respectively in Engineering and related technologies, and 25 and 75 per cent for females and males in Information technology.

There are many possible factors contributing to the discrepancy of women and men in STEM including: a lack of female role models, gender stereotyping and a lack of encouragement from teachers and parents to choose STEM subjects in upper secondary school.

Gender inequality exists in STEM fields in education and in employment. There is a need to encourage and support women and girls in STEM for the benefit of all.
There is a need to encourage and support women and girls in STEM for the benefit of all. We say that #girlscanbe women in STEM and we want to see more!  Find out more about women and STEM.