Launching today on Kickstarter is a campaign to fund toys aimed specifically at getting more women into science. Check them out on Kickstarter and watch their video below. The company is another Israeli startup based in Rehovot (of course!).
https://youtu.be/Mmf-O7wAt7c
August 3, 2015- Dr. Yael Schuster, founder of the The KnowItAlls, announced the launch of an educational toy whose objective is to encourage girls to dream of science. While women make up 48% of the workforce, only 24% of science jobs are held by women- the KnowItAlls is focused on this early pipeline in a part of global movement to encourage girls in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math). Targeted at girls aged 8-12, the age at which kids’ interest in science begins to differentiate by gender, the combination adventure book + science kit + community membership promises to disrupt the pink aisle. Schuster explains, “Our goal is to show girls that they can be scientists by teaching fun, meaningful science, so we created a toy that is infused with exciting experiments, positive role models, and community.”
According to the 2015 OECD report on the gender pay gap, “Less than one in 20 girls considers a career in STEM compared to one in five boys.” This has significant implications on their future salaries, as careers in these fields are in high demand and among the most highly paid. Yet OECD surveys have shown that girls lack the same self-confidence as boys in science, which was attributed to striking differences in parental encouragement that exacerbate the problem. Dr. Schuster says, “simply put, society is telling our girls that science doesn’t belong to them, and parents lack the educational tools to bridge this gap.”
