The conversation of women and STEM is a hot topic. How do we get girls more involved? How can we equalize the industry? Do women want to get involved in STEM at all? The debate and questions go on and on—often with backlash from women expressing that the last way to encourage their gender to get involved in STEM is by saying there aren’t enough of them there when and if they chose to do so. While the United States may be missing the mark in proactively engaging women towards a STEM career, Iran seems to have it figured out.
70% of Iran’s science and engineering students are women and are encouraged by smaller start-ups to play an even larger role. And many people might be surprised to discover that women have been managing and owning businesses in male-dominated fields for years in Iran.
Startup Weekend for Women in Tehran and 500 Startups at iBridges, a conference supporting Iran’s tech community, provides young women the opportunity to network and pitch their ideas to VCs. Though still a young industry, women are emerging at the forefront and considered trailblazers in the tech sector.
Journalist Shahram Sharif who founded ITiran.com, the first portal about tech in Farsi said, “Before, there were few, but now there are many tech journalists who are women. Four of my colleagues are female. It’s my honor to work with them.” Though, the industry is still growing and there is plenty of work to do for women to emerge as fully empowered members of the STEM industry, change is certainly on the rise to utilize the education, intelligence, and ingenuity of the women of Iran.