Michael UngarCEO of the Industry 4.0 Club

Sally Ride: Why Role Models Matter for Girls in STEM

23 Aug 2026 · 2 min

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1:30

In this brief spoken segment, the presenter cites a Sally Ride quote emphasizing that young girls need visible role models to imagine themselves in various careers, noting the adage "you can't be what you can't see." The speaker reflects on their own upbringing without seeing women in technical roles, highlighting how early exposure shapes career aspirations. They present statistics showing that women comprise only 29% of manufacturing positions and 26% of leadership roles within manufacturing, underscoring the male‑dominated hierarchy they have experienced. The narrative stresses that the scarcity of female role models and limited promotion opportunities make it difficult for women to feel accepted and advance in the industry, arguing that increased visibility and promotion of women are essential for change.

Chapters

I have a quote here from Sally Ride on my presentation that says, young girls need to see role models in whatever careers they may choose, just so they can picture themselves doing those jobs someday. You can't be what you can't see. And I think that that is so true because for me, I didn't see this growing up. I didn't see women in, in any sort of roles like this. And so it really makes a difference. It makes a difference from when you're a little kid, right? And you're seeing, oh, what kind of jobs are there? What do you want to be when you grow up? You know, what 7-year-old girl's like, I want to be a manufacturing engineer? You know, like very few. So I think it's really important. And you talked about women in leadership. So women account for 29% of all manufacturing roles and 26% of all leadership roles in manufacturing. It's so low. Almost every company I've worked at has been a male boss, and his boss is a male, and his boss is a male, and it just keeps going up, right? And so for me, it was hard to even feel accepted in the industry just because there weren't more people like me around. So 100% agree with with that, and the promotions are definitely important.