Back in the 19^th century, it was common for women to not have a large role in factories, or to even have any role at all. Most women got pushed away and shrugged off a man’s shoulder, who would tell them that they didn’t know anything and that their opinions didn’t matter. We have come a long way since the 19^th century as far as inventions and their inventors go. Women are more often in higher roles these days, however they still are not always on top. Women are not sufficient these days in STEM fields: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. As unfortunate as this is, we know it is true. Men are all in control of just about every factory, work place, and jobs, especially those within a STEM field. I think that a lot of women are not even given the chance to succeed in roles within these fields, simply because they are put down for being a woman.

In a video we watched a few weeks back called Women in Science: Why So Few the female narrator talked about the different reasons why women are not dominant in these work fields, one of the reasons being a lack of confidence. Women are put down for being women, which then makes them feel unconfident in the things they do, so they either quit trying or don’t even start to try something different or new. This is really sad because it makes me wonder how many women have given up on something, simply because a man told her she couldn’t do it. It is heartbreaking to me how we can let other people control our emotions like that and just let it choose our outcomes.

She also discusses a study done on the test scores and performance of men vs. women. One group was told the outcome of past participants had nothing to do with gender, and another group was told that men performed better on this specific test. It was staggering how much better the male participants performed on this test than women, simply because that initial statement about bad female performance had tore down the women’s confidence level.

Women have come a long way since the 19^th century, where men refused to listen to their ideas and opinions. I believe we can only go up from here and I think in order to keep progressing, women must believe in themselves. In order to see more women in these Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math fields, we need to keep teaching females that it’s okay to be smart! If they are confident, they will keep pushing and striving to complete the goals that they set. If Margaret Knight didn’t believe in herself, she would have let all the men who told her she couldn’t do it, get to her. Instead, she used that to spark her fire and strive to accomplish her goals. She used her confidence to be successful.