Solving Complex Problems Together: A Partnership for Gender Equity in STEM

Million Girls Moonshot reflects on the collaboration with National Girls Collaborative Project to inspire more girls to pursue STEM

When STEM Next launched the Million Girls Moonshot in 2020, an initiative to engage one million more girls in STEM, a partnership with the National Girls Collaborative Project (NGCP), an organization with two decades of expertise in eliminating the gender gap, just made sense. 

The gender equity gap has persisted in STEM for decades, with some fields like health-related careers experiencing more female representation, and others fields barely experiencing a change such as the proportion of women in engineering moving from 12% to 15% since 1990. Initiatives like Moonshot and organizations like NGCP play critical roles in helping educators and program providers expose and encourage more girls to pursue STEM. 

“The Moonshot was excited to tap into NGCP’s legacy of work to support our common goal of eliminating the gender equity gap in STEM,” said Teresa Drew, deputy director of STEM Next. “We are both working to solve a challenge deeply rooted in multiple systems in our society. This means the solution will not come from one organization or one project. Our partnership is a testament to the power of collaboration and its ability to tackle persistent and complex problems in our world.” 

By tapping into the strengths of organizations, like NGCP, Moonshot leverages the already existing talent, expertise, and evidence-based practices to share with Moonshot’s robust network of afterschool and out-of-school learning program partners nationwide. Together, we equip educators with innovative tools to engage girls in STEM learning. 

Since the Moonshot’s inception in 2020, NGCP and Moonshot have worked together to help design and support  impactful and inclusive afterschool STEM learning. With 20 years as the national go-to resource for girls in STEM, NGCP created the Moonshot’s foundational framework: Access to STEM: Creating space for all learners. This framework, paired with ongoing implementation support and professional development, is helping programs ensure girls have a sense of belonging and deeper access to engaging, hands-on STEM Learning. 

NGCP and the Moonshot also teamed up around the research that role models help young people, especially girls and youth of color, eliminate negative stereotypes about who can pursue STEM. The collaboration hosts a collection of resources for youth to see themselves in STEM careers. Housed within the IF/THEN Collection, powered by Lyda Hill Philanthropies, the Million Girls Moonshot collection is a free resource for educators, mentors, and other leaders to use to showcase the power of women in STEM. It is a powerful collection of photos, videos, hands-on activities, and stories of inspiring women working in a wide range of STEM fields - from engineering to physical sciences to space and aviation. The collection also features four new activities for educators leveraging assets from the collection.

“There are so many responsibilities in teaching young people and finding resources that uplift positive imagery for girls and BIPOC youth can be challenging. For too long we have been limited to white men in lab coats,” said Drew. “The Moonshot’s IF/THEN Collection gives educators an easy to use, free resource to help break down that narrow vision of who can be a scientist. Our partnership with NGCP is helping us create useful tools for informal educators that alleviate barriers to access for girls, turning the idea of being an engineer or scientist to reality.  

NGCP and Moonshot’s collaborative IF/THEN Collection can be found here. The Access to STEM Framework can be found here.