Dr. Raven Partners With OLAY To Tackle The Gender Gap In STEM

Although women make up half the workforce in the US STEM—science, technology, engineering, and mathematics – sector, they occupy just 27% of STEM jobs, according to the United States Census Bureau.

These stats have led OLAY to launch #FacetheSTEMgap campaign. The social initiative, which debuted in 2020, aims to help double the number of women and triple the number of women of color working in STEM by 2030.

To champion this cause, OLAY is highlighting four remarkable women including Dr. Raven Baxter, who is paving the way for a brighter future for students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

The molecular biologist — also known as Dr. Raven the Science Maven always knew what she wanted to pursue from a young age, but she ran into obstacles when trying to pursue her dream—such as the implicit biases against women of color, for starters.

Then, according to Bazaar, there was the pervasive stereotype that women are more emotional than men, which Dr. Baxter points to as a significant factor in the lack of women in STEM.

Now established in her career, Dr. Baxter’s goal is to show women that there’s so much more to STEM than the traditional industries, like big-tech.

She launched STEMbassy in 2020 — a science advocacy organization and web series that encourages Black voices to combine STEM topics with real-life situations. 

“What inspired me was the lack of representation I was seeing when it came to people like myself having a voice in the industry. I founded STEMbassy to create a place where people from all fields can gather to talk about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in the context of politics, culture, and social issues,” Baxter told AfroTech.