Hello Miranda! I'm glad to come across this brilliantly articulated piece. I always struggled accepting my identity as a non STEM woman in a country that produces nearly a million engineers a year.

I also, like you do not find anything wrong with 'Girls in STEM' campaigns, but I do dislike the condescending attitude towards the non-STEM folks, especially, women. Historically, women have faced hindrance to enter the STEM world, and keep pace with their peers, for example - Marie Curie almost missed out on her Nobel because she was a lady, and the other two contributors to their joint work were men.

I am very empathetic, and yearn to work towards social work and education, it inspires me. However, it doesn't mean that my intelligence is lower to a peer who gets into STEM and earns nearly double or triple to what I'll do in a year. The insecurity has a tie with financial woe surrounding non-STEM fields. Thank you for writing this post and creating a healthy ground for us to discuss this.