The “SHE CHOOSES STEM” project promoted interest in STEM disciplines together with the scientific approach and spread the values of inclusion and diversity and achieved the following results/outcomes: - Increase the skills and abilities of teachers and operators through training and awareness-raising actions on STEM disciplines, with attention to gender stereotypes, in support of the guidance activity aimed at young people in the transition phases between educational levels and towards university studies. - Increase awareness, interest and excellence of STEM disciplines in young female students, - Develop skills and competences for shared and transferable STEM strategies defined through processes of integrated and trans-sectoral participatory co-creation within the partnership. - Raise awareness and promote the issue of gender equality and the inclusion of women in the scientific field through an interactive dialogue on the motivations of young people, also considering the gender language used by the media and the press, social prejudices, the role of institutions and responsibilities in the choices of educational-training paths made by young female students.
Promoting STEM subjects among girls is one of the priorities of the European Union and to this end the fundamental role that teachers have in motivating young people to undertake STEM careers is widely recognized. At the same time, the effects that gender preconceptions and stereotypes have in the school world, in families and on young female students, distancing them from scientific fields both in study and in professions and work, are ascertained. Studies and surveys reveal that at the base there are individual factors, social motivations and family background. The Project intended to address these causes by directly addressing the needs of the following Target Groups: - Young/female students who need to become aware and more conscious of their vocations, study choices and STEM training towards future employment opportunities. - Teachers and operators who need to increase new skills and abilities to fully understand the talents of young people and the causes underlying inconsistent and different choices from technical-scientific subjects. - Families, public and educational institutions that need to overcome pre-conceptual limits and gender stereotypes.