Annalise Johnson
On Saturday, U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar came to the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters Training Center to present to local Girl Scouts and women carpenters about the importance of getting women and girls involved in science, technology, engineering, and math fields.
The senator says that STEM field careers are in high demand, but there are not enough women and men pursuing STEM careers.
Klobuchar is co-chair of the Senate Diversifying Tech Caucus and the Women's High Tech Coalition. Two of her bipartisan bills created to support women in STEM became law in 2017. The INSPIRE Women Act requires NASA to encourage women to pursue study in STEM fields, and the Promoting Women in Entrepreneurship Act helps female inventors get their products to market.
The U.S. Economics and Statistics Administration says that while almost as many women as men hold undergraduate degrees, women only make up about 30 percent of all people with STEM degrees. Women working jobs in STEM earn 35 percent more than women in non-STEM jobs. The gender wage gap is also smaller in STEM jobs than in non-STEM jobs.