Females Can Break Through STEM Ceiling.

• Position: SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Women make up 28% of the workforce in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and men outnumber women majoring in most STEM undergraduate majors. These statistics drive engineer and STEM advocate Caitlin Kalinowski to be a guiding voice for women and minorities interested in these industries.

Kalinowski--a guest lecturer at Stanford University's School of Engineering and the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design as well as hardware director for Facebook Reality Labs' Oculus VR products--actively promotes more women joining these fields while working as a leader in virtual reality.

Women entering highly male-dominated places have always had to learn new ways of communicating to be effective. In the short term, we can teach young women and girls to communicate effectively in STEM environments so they can achieve the same status as men in the fields. Longer term, balancing and diversifying the STEM fields themselves will create cultures that are more welcoming to young women and underrepresented minorities.

Kalinowski believes that constant harping in...