Empowering Women and Girls in Science by Integrating Humanities Perspectives into STEM Education

This paper examines the integration of humanities perspectives into STEM education as a means of empowering women and girls and addressing persistent gender inequities. It acknowledges the historical underrepresentation of women in STEM due to stereotypes, biases, and systemic issues. This tackles the historical context of gender inequity concerning STEM, and issues such as the role stereotypes propagate biases about women’s participation and success in these fields. This study advocates for an interdisciplinary pedagogy incorporating feminist principles to create inclusive spaces, questions of relation and power in the classroom. Key empowerment strategies include creating supportive environments, mentorship programs, collaborative learning opportunities, defining open communication channels, technologists locating and mobilizing community voices. This paper highlights challenges such as representation and lack of stereotypes, threat, and climate of the classroom. Case studies and success stories show the impact inclusive pedagogy programs, workshops, service-learning, and mentorship initiatives have on women’s persistence in STEM. It is suggested to take a progressive interdisciplinary learning approach towards global issues and all its equitability and accessibility facets, so that budding innovations enter the STEM culture, innovatively equipping to face the contemporary complex dilemmas.