Women have made strides in many career areas, but it’s still tough to break into some, including science, technology, engineering and math. “We have a persistent issue in our country around the STEM fields, which obviously include engineering, which in some respects is the worst off, although mathematics is pretty bad too,” said Gale Starich, Brenau University’s Dean of the School of Health & Science. “I’m a basic scientist, so right off the bat in both my master’s and my doctorate, I never had a female professor.