Changing the Face of STEM

As a global health technology company that recruits world-class scientists and engineers, we know women are critical to solving the world's biggest problems with smart, imaginative thinking.

But in the United States, women make up just 27% of the science, technology, engineering and math – or STEM – workforce, while accounting for 48% of all U.S. workers. Meanwhile, U.S. federal data predict the need for nearly 800,000 more STEM workers by 2029.

These statistics are reality at a time when the world needs our brightest and most passionate STEM minds to solve major challenges. This need is one reason why we invest in our high school internship program, which gives students the opportunity to work on our life-changing technologies alongside engineers and scientists who look like them.

Because we choose students from diverse schools, more than two-thirds are from underrepresented groups and more than half are young women. Nearly 80% who are eligible go on to our college internship program, and more than 70% of the former high school interns we've hired as full-time engineers are women.

We're not perfect, but we're actively working on it – and we've updated the blueprint of what's worked well for us to include a chapter on earning college credit for STEM internships. It's our hope that companies will use it as a guide to start similar high school internship programs.

None of us can change the face of STEM alone. It's going to take a village of science-based companies, committed to exposing young women to STEM early on, to change the statistics.

Join us in this mission.

Want more inspiration? Meet our STEM Sisters. A select group of incredible women who are making a difference through STEM fields at Abbott, every single day.

Are you a parent or teacher? Check out our Resources page on STEM activities you can do with your children and students.