Meet the 10-Year-Old Defying Stereotypes About Women in Science“Ten-year-old Esther Okade of W
Meet the 10-Year-Old Defying Stereotypes About Women in Science“Ten-year-old Esther Okade of Walsall, England, achieved something that will take about eight more years for the rest of her peers: The fledgling math whiz has enrolled in the U.K.’s Open University, where she is studying for a mathematics degree. According to the Telegraph, Okade is not only one of the U.K.’s youngest university students ever, but also is at the top of her class and earned a perfect score on a recent exam.Who said girls can’t do math?"I just love math,” Okade told the Daily Mail. “All the numbers and the solving, it’s like a mystery.” Okade said she believes she’ll finish her math degree in two years and intends to continue studying — until she’s “Dr. Okade.” “I’ll go do my Ph.D., and then from there I’ll start running my own business. I want to be a banker.”No one can deny that Okade is beating the odds. Men continue to outnumber women in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), a gap many experts say is caused by restrictions to opportunity and the sexism many women encounter in these male-dominated areas of study. In the U.S., according to the National Math and Science Initiative, women occupy just 23% of STEM jobs, despite making up roughly 48% of workers in all other occupations. Women of color are often particularly affected by the gap, as they encounter a double whammy of racial and gender bias.“Read the full piece here#DrOkade -- source link
#esther okade#mathlete#black girls#black women#woc#gender#gender roles#gender stereotyes#black feminist#black feminism#womanist#womanism#drokade