UKWritings tutor on exploring career opportunities in FemTech for STEM students

FemTech – short for Female Technology – is an emerging industry. It’s also an emergent term that describes a movement to develop entirely new products and services to better address the health and wellbeing needs of women, around the world. Innovative. Fast-paced.

Multi-faceted – and sexy and important. Yes. And that’s the exact reason why FemTech is a tech company to its core, a tech company that brings women, health and technology issues to the center stage together. And any student of STEM (sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics) is in for a career full of dreams. Exploring career opportunities in FemTech opens exciting paths for STEM students, and using UKWritings to write my dissertation can help them focus on this growing field while ensuring their academic work is top-notch. UKWritings.com provides expert dissertation writing services, making it easier for students to balance career exploration with academic success.

This is all the more important now, when more women are aware of female-specific health products, and when industry is expanding at a pace: the FemTech market is set to grow by a CAGR of 11.4 per cent, with plenty of new and exciting jobs for STEM graduates who want to use technology and innovation to improve the lives of women.

The Rise of FemTech

Indeed, the very word FemTech was coined back in 2016 by Ida Tin, the founder of the period-tracking app Clue. Shaped by her own experience of polycystic ovary syndrome, Tin made it her mission to destigmatize female sexual health and create technology that could help women better understand their bodies. Since then, the fledgling FemTech industry has exploded: disrupting stale markets, creating jobs and driving significant capital into a sector long ignored by the patriarchy. Clue alone raised $30 million within its first three years. Today, almost any product that relates to women’s health or hygiene can be counted as FemTech: from fertility-solutions and menstrual-tracking apps to pregnancy and lactation care; and women’s sexual wellness and care of reproductive surgery.

According to Frost Sullivan, a market research firm, the FemTech market will grow to $50 billion by 2025, and much faster than that thereafter. This growth can be attributed to three factors. First, public awareness of female health issues is rising. Second, personalized health solutions are in high demand. Third, technology advancements have allowed us to address previously unmentioned parts of the female anatomy that used to be taboo.

Why STEM Students Should Consider FemTech Careers

Pursuing career opportunities in FemTech offers exciting prospects for STEM students, and a UK Writings review by LinkedIn author shows how their services can assist students in balancing academic responsibilities with career exploration. FemTech presents an opportunity for STEM students to marry technical skills with a passion for improving the health and wellbeing of women. Here are why STEM graduates should look seriously at FemTech as a career:

• Work with purpose: working at a FemTech company gives professionals a sense of purpose and meaning as they are working on products and services that help women improve their lives around the world, from apps for females to track their menstrual cycle, to innovative medical devices that enable early detection of breast cancer.
• Fast moving career opportunities: as the FemTech market is growing very quickly, there is an excellent chance for any woman to move fast up the career ladder. As the market evolves, new roles and new specializations are getting available too, presenting good prospects for one’s career development.
• Interdisciplinary potential: FemTech draws on biology, computer science, data analysis, engineering, and more. Students graduating in STEM subjects can put their skills to use in myriad ways, and collaborate with a range of colleagues.
• Innovation-driven: as a bleeding edge of innovation, FemTech offers the opportunity to be at the vanguard of women’s health technology. For STEM students who thrive on creativity and problem-solving, FemTech is a dynamic place to work.
• Unmet needs: Much of women’s health has been historically overlooked in medical research and product development. In that sense, FemTech can create valuable opportunities for STEM professionals to work on the development of groundbreaking solutions for subjects that have long been neglected.

Career Opportunities in FemTech

The FemTech industry offers a wide array of career opportunities for STEM graduates. Here’s a table showcasing some of the key roles available in the field:

These roles represent just a fraction of the career opportunities available in the FemTech industry. As the field continues to grow and evolve, new positions are likely to emerge, offering even more options for STEM graduates.

Skills Needed for a Career in FemTech

While skills will depend on the nature of the role and what experts are working on, some core competencies can be applied across the FemTech sector:

• Technical: While you could technically qualify as a data scientist without any formal education past high-school, you’ll certainly need to have a strong background in one or more STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) such as biology, computer science, engineering, or data analysis; depending on aspects of your role your expertise might include areas such as machine learning, mobile app development, or biomedical engineering.These would include skills in data analysis, statistics and data visualization, which will become increasingly important as data within health and healthcare take a bigger and bigger role.
• Programming: Proficiency in programming languages (Python, R, Java, etc) is typically required for any work involving software development (eg, programming/software engineer roles), data analysis (eg, data analyst), or AI/ML engineering (eg, AI/ML engineer roles).
• User-Centered Design: Help developers and entrepreneurs realize that designing with women in mind is a business imperative, not a ‘nice to have’. UCD (user-centered design) and UX (user experience) are prerequisites for creating products that women will actually use.
• Research Skills: Quite a few jobs within FemTech may involve the execution and/or interpretation of scientific research. A good knowledge of research methodologies, literature review skills and scientific writing skills would be needed.
• Interdisciplinarity: You have heard the term ‘thinking outside the box’ and have been advised to think across disciplines and use different ways of thinking to solve complicated problems. The most innovative industry in the world, FemTech, thinks like that.
• Communication: Communicate clearly with different teams in the development process, explain complicated issues to non-technical stakeholders, and (potentially) directly to end-users.
• Empathy and Cultural Sensitivity: Females’ perspectives; empathy for women; sensitivity to cultural differences in health and health behaviors.

Challenges and Opportunities in FemTech

STEM students should be aware of FemTech’s limitations (and its opportunities) because, although the term suggests optimism and new career possibilities, it doesn’t mean that there are no risks or uncertainties attached.

Challenges:

Furthermore, taboos and stigma surrounding women’s health add an additional challenge to marketing and discussions of FemTech products.

Because the field is so new, there may also be fewer established career paths at this time, relative to more traditional STEM industries.

Being inclusive, dealing with the multiple needs of diverse populations of women, can be stressful and needs to be constantly taught and re-taught.

Opportunities:

This space is under-innovated, with tons of room for future products that are specifically designed to address women’s health concerns.

As a consequence, investment in FemTech has continued to rise, with more support for ideas and concepts that prioritize women’s health.

Because FemTech is inherently interdisciplinary, it’s relatively easy to use cutting-edge technologies in new ways and open up creative solutions to problems.

Getting Started in FemTech

Here are some suggestions to get started for STEM students interested in making a career out of FemTech:

1. Education: Try to take relevant STEM degrees, and if you can take an elective in women’s health, digital health, or biomedical engineering.
2. Internships: Look for internship opportunities with FemTech startups or established companies in the field.
3. Networking: Attend FemTech conferences, webinars and meetups. Here, you can learn from experts in the field and rub shoulders with industry professionals.
4. Research: Read the latest trade journals, reports and scientific studies to keep up with new developments in women’s health and technology.
5. Projects Take on an Interest in FemTech: Set up these projects or attend the women’s health hackathons that are becoming increasingly popular.
6. Mentorships: Find mentors who are working in FemTech and ask them for feedback.

Conclusion

STEM students with a keen interest in advancing women’s health through technology have an exciting, meaningful and ‘life-enabling’ career path to follow. FemTech is growing, interdisciplinary and innovative, and STEM graduates have the opportunity to make a real impact.

When empowered with both technical know-how and knowledge of women’s health needs, STEM professionals can create cutting-edge innovations that improve the lives of women everywhere. Growth within the industry spells a future of challenges, new lessons and the opportunity to be part of a healthcare revolution.

As such, for STEM students who want to help create technology for a good cause, FemTech offers a career that offers all the advantages of technological innovation, with the social impact of a perfect match. Your ‘job’ becomes a part of a revolution in women’s health and wellness that will benefit generations to come.