Initially, I began to delve into research concerning the overall advancement of STEM fields and why it is that more and more people have a decreasing interest in studying and working in such fields. Then my research prompted me to look into what seemed like an even bigger issue at hand, women more so than men are not looking into the possibilities of studying and working in STEM fields. The decline of women studying and working in such fields could prove to be detrimental to the economy now and in the future. The impact as a whole is unknown however, programs are being put in place to encourage and speak to women about STEM fields and what impacts they could have if they became involved in these such fields. 

To answer my research question I will be using these three following sources. My first source is a scholarly journal written about the book, "Women in Stem Careers: International Perspectives on Increasing Workforce Participation, Advancement, and Leadership" by Diana Bilimoria and Linley Lord. In this book review by Virginia Kleist, she suggests that it is best to look at the big picture. The best thing to do is to further our knowledge of women in STEM fields and what the true problem could be. Kleist suggests that this book, "focuses on positive drivers for retention, constructive actions that can be taken by organizations to support women, and progressive interventions, organized into three parts reflecting these areas." In this book, it focuses on positivity and how many improvements can be made in women participants' involvement in STEM fields. Moreover, the journal focuses on how "the underrepresentation of women in critically important STEM fields does a disservice to any societal goals of gender [equality]." I like this book review since it does pertain to my research question and the information is backed up with tons of examples from a variety of sources. 

The second source is an Academic Journal. Authors Patrice McDermott and Kelly M. Mack article, "The Twenty-First-Century Case for Inclusive Excellence in STEM," offers an insight to what could be a huge problem within the United States. This problem includes the issue of having enough United States born citizens that have the ability to help us not stretch our current STEM employees more than they need to be. A great argument that this article states is, "[I]f we are to consider the most effective means of maintaining a diverse workforce, then the matter of gender equity in STEM at all faculty ranks as well as among student majors emerges as a national imperative for higher education reform, and requires our careful understanding of both historical and contemporary influences on trends in gender equity." This statement almost hits the nail on the head in terms of summing up a potentially horrendous problem that our economy and society as a whole could quite frankly face sooner than later.  

The third sample is also an Academic Journal. Written by Freeman A. Hrabowski III, "Broadening Participation in the American STEM Workforce," this article contains great information based on studies conducted by The Bayer Corporation in which they examined the "practices and attitudes within science departments at the nation's leading research institutions." After conducting this survey, it was found that out of the "400 department chairs" interviewed that there was immense support in favor of increasing the amount of women and other underrepresented minorities in science. It focuses more specifically on how there needs to be even more emphasis on an overall approach to bringing more people into the field as scientists and engineers and even more so those who come from diverse backgrounds. The United States as a whole needs to understand that talent can come from a vast amount of people and that together we should ty to grab a hold on all the individuals that we can in order to help us better succeed in advancing our Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics fields. The surveys and statistics that this study focuses on give great background information and help to back up further knowledge that may come to light on STEM fields. Although surveys and statistics do add to prior and future research, we should not limit ourselves to just these kinds of information to support our positions but rather take them and add to those through other means and information that is and becomes available to us in our further research. 

