Extra Credit

The challenges faced by international women in STEM

Episode Summary

Today’s episode is about women in STEM (that’s Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) — specifically, the challenges women face in pursuing an international STEM education. Our guest is Shahira Yasmin, a mechanical engineering graduate from Imperial College London and an advanced robotics graduate from Queen Mary University, London. Before leaving her home country Malaysia for some of the top universities in the world, she’s never worked with circuits or soldiering. She was in an all-girls school, which was more concerned about funnelling students into home economics lessons. During her undergraduate degree, she had only four female lecturers and 19 female colleagues in a class of around 160 people. Yasmin was often the only woman in the room — an experience filled with its own set of unique challenges, which she overcame and can now offer important insights and advice for anyone seeking to become part of tomorrow’s women in STEM.