Sarah Tong, co-founder and CEO, Big Bang Academy: For transforming STEM education and inspiring young girls and women to lead in science
“Because of what I do, I am in two of the fields where women are still under-represented: in STEM and in entrepreneurship.
Globally, women make up over half of all students who have enrolled in tertiary education, but they remain considerably less likely to choose STEM fields. The 2024 GEM Gender Report showed that women made up only 35 per cent of STEM graduates, showing no progress over the past ten years (which was around the time I graduated from an engineering degree from university, also being the minority).
There are still a lot of gender biases in STEM rooting from traditional stereotypes. In our current student base (aged 3-16), only 30-35 per cent are female students.
Even in Hong Kong, a city where gender equality is considered to be quite advanced, I have come across parents and teachers being affected by gender-limiting stereotypes. For instance, caregivers tend to think male children are more interested in STEM simply because they like to play with toy cars. For female kids, the bar is different: even if their daughters show interest in simple mechanical tasks such as assembling things or playing with Lego, parents tend to be more reluctant to sign them up for STEM education, especially if they have also shown interest in the arts, such as dancing or playing the piano. This gendered attitude has remained largely the same even though a new and progressed concept, STEAM, has been introduced.
Similar situations are faced by female entrepreneurs around funding due to limited access to networks, lack of role models and biases of investment panels.
In the age of rapid development in technology, AI and STEM, no girls and women should be left behind. Being under-represented in STEM and in entrepreneurship, I feel compelled to be more bold, more ambitious and to make a difference!”
