What are the Issues Affecting Hispanic Middle School Girls When Considering a Future Career in the STEM Field

Minority women are still needed in the STEM fields and more needs to be done to encourage women to consider a major in STEM fields (Ong et al., 2010). White males represent 51% and Hispanic women represent 2%. The data shows that the disparity is so great that men are still the dominant group in the STEM fields (Falkenheim & Hale, 2015). The STEM shortage is projected to worsen as the Hispanic population increases by 52% before the year 2050, as this population that has endured the greatest prevalence of STEM underachievement" (The National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, 2013).;The theoretical framework for this study was based on Urie Bronfenbrenner's (2005) Bioecological model. This model is an evolving theoretical system for the scientific study of human development over time and explains the impact of influences on Hispanic middle school girls' decisions when selecting a future career in the STEM fields.;The purpose of this study was to understand the issues affecting middle-school Hispanic girls in considering a future career in the STEM fields. The research approach was a semi-structured interview format that allowed the researcher to probe the participants' responses to further understands the girls and women's perceptions. The qualitative descriptive code method was employed to analyze focus group transcriptions; two sets of Hispanic middle school girls participated in focus groups and current women in the STEM fields participated in a focus group using NVIVO software to investigate the themes from the interviews.;The results of this study shows that girls are affected by their family, school and mentors when considering a career in the STEM fields. Based on the findings, several implications for families, educators and community members were discussed. A proposed model provides the importance of exposing Hispanic girls at a young age about STEM, educating teachers and counselors about their influence on young girl's confidence in STEM, and collaborate with the STEM organizations.