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Growing up, I changed [br]career paths many times.

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First,

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I wanted to be a teacher like my mom.

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And then, I wanted to be a singer,[br]the next Taylor Swift.

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Finally, I wanted to be an actress

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because what 10-year-old[br]doesn't want to be on Disney Channel.

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Whatever I thought my future[br]occupation would be,

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an engineer was not it.

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Engineering wasn't even on my radar.

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In my opinion,

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math and science weren't for girls.

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They were for nerdy boys.

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It sounds silly, but it's true.

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When I was a kid, I imagined engineers [br]and scientists and mathematicians

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as really smart men in lab coats

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discussing complex theorems, [br]years beyond my understanding.

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I thought women in STEM were anomalies.

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And for a woman to be an engineer, [br]she had to be some kind of prodigy.

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And then one day,

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my older stepsister told me[br]that she wanted to be an engineer.

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And I realized then[br]that women in STEM weren't prodigies.

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They could be anyone.

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A female engineer doesn't [br]have to be a prodigy,

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just like a male engineer [br]doesn't have to be a prodigy.

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And I decided then[br]that I wanted to be an engineer too.

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After making the choice[br]to follow this new career path,

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I started to realize[br]it's a whole lot easier for guys.

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In most cases, [br]from the time they develop,

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boys are taught how to use tools[br]and put things together.

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They're the ones [br]who are pushed towards cars,

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and we're the ones [br]that are pushed towards Barbies.

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Toys that inspire passion [br]to go to engineering,

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like robots and Legos,[br]are typically marketed towards boys.

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And the ones marketed towards girls [br]aren't trucks or spaceships -

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they're princess castles and pet shops.

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I think it's the little things[br]that cause the gender gap

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in science and math careers.

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The rare little comment [br]that girls aren't as smart as boys -

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a son being taught how to fix a car [br]while a daughter is taught how to cook.

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It's nobody's fault.

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We unconsciously do these things

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because gender differences[br]and inequalities are things

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that have been around for a long time.

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And now, they're drilled into our heads.

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We solved a lot of this[br]back in the early days

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with women's suffrage [br]and equal education.

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And now it's time for us [br]to fix the little things,

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so that we can grow even closer [br]to achieving equality.

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The lack of women in STEM [br]isn't all across the board, however.

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In fact, in areas such[br]as medical science and social science,

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the ratio is actually very balanced.

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But in areas that are often [br]considered more "taxing,"

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such as computer science and mathematics,

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women make up about a quarter[br]of the workforce.

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I want that number to even out.

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There's a constant fallacy[br]that's spoken from the beginning:

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teasing, stereotyping, marginalization.

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Countless articles discuss

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how women feel out of place[br]in classes relating to STEM,

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due to reasons such as other[br]classmates mocking them

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or a professor not paying [br]as much attention to them

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or a lack of other female[br]classmates in the class.

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And if gender inequality [br]isn't a reason enough

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for wanting more women involved in STEM,

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take into account [br]the scientific discoveries

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that have been made by women.

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Cardiovascular disease symptoms [br]were always being based off male symptoms.

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Despite the fact that it manifests [br]very differently in men and women,

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the average male is the model

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for investigating diseases[br]and designing treatment

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because men were the ones [br]doing the research.

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For years, women died[br]from incorrect diagnoses

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because no one took into account

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that a person's sex [br]could have such an effect

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on how a disease appeared.

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Now that more women are getting[br]more involved in medical research,

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however, they themselves are taking[br]into account these differences

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and are consequently saving lives.

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Women have been advancing their fields [br]farther ahead for centuries.

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Ada Lovelace created a plan for a machine

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that could perform complex [br]mathematical calculations.

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She did this in the early 1800s.

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It was never built during her lifetime,

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but her plans were used a century later[br]to build the world's first computers.

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One of the world's first [br]electronic computers, called the "ENIAC,"

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was programmed[br]by six female mathematicians.

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Now, Amy Sheng, an engineer,[br]is developing a smartphone attachment

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called CellScope,

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which allows mothers to detect[br]ear infections in their children.

0:04:16.540,0:04:19.221
Hadiyah-Nicole Green, [br]a medical physicist,

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is designing a cancer treatment

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that uses lasers to destroy[br]cancer cells exclusively.

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Despite these achievements,[br]women are still isolated in STEM fields.

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I can also get into other problems [br]such as the gender pay gap.

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But the fact is that we have [br]made so much progress,

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and yet we are still miles away [br]from the finish line.

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It's because of the internalized[br]beliefs we don't get it,

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plus it's the type[br]for both men and for women.

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Project Implicit conducted [br]an investigation on half a million people,

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and found that 70% of them

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automatically associate men with science[br]and women with the arts.

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My goal is to get the word out there

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that any little girl or boy[br]can be anything they want to be,

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including an engineer.

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They don't have to be a prodigy [br]to be a scientist or mathematician.

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As long as they work hard,

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they can be anything[br]they would like to be.

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Parents, teachers, and friends [br]shouldn't hold them back.

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They should encourage them.

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I want that internalized bias to be gone

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because that's what stopped me[br]from wanting to be an engineer

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when I was little.

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And I don't want to stop anyone else[br]from wanting to be an engineer ever again.

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Thank you.

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(Applause) (Cheers)