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"Progress on STEM is critical to building a just and inclusive society. STEM participation and achievement statistics are especially disturbing for women and minorities, who are substantially underrepresented in STEM fields." (Source)

"When mathematics is taught with an attitude of elitism, and it is held up as being harder than other subjects and suitable only for the gifted few, a tiny subset of those who could achieve in mathematics - and the other scientific subjects which require mathematics - do so. When this elitist idea is combined with stereotypical ideas of who has the gift, harsh inequalities are produced."

"In 2013, 73% of math doctorates were male and 94% were white or Asian. The proportion of women taking mathematics PhDs between 2004 and 2013 actually fell, from 34% of students to 27% of students."

"This leap in gender parity follows more than 10 years of successful outreach efforts by WPI to draw more girls and young women towards the STEM fields. In 2007, WPI became the first nationally ranked science and engineering university to pilot an admissions policy that no longer required students to submit their scores on SATs and standardized tests, which have been shown to skew against women and underrepresented minorities. Capping off these efforts, this year the university made a strategic decision to devote additional financial resources to incentivize more women applicants. Over the past 10 years, applications to WPI increased 81 percent, while applications from women increased by 99 percent. In addition, applications from domestic underrepresented minority students increased by 146 percent, and applications from underrepresented minority women increased by 123 percent in that time."