Since Barbie^TM first came on the market to little girls in 1959, she has had 124 careers that have ranged from Fashion Model to Canadian Mountie. Today, Barbie^TM will announce her 125th career, and it's been put to the vote!

All women have the choice of what they want to do with their lives, and Barbie^TM is no exception; her career possibilities include environmentalist, surgeon, architect, news anchor or, and computer engineer. Personally, I'd love to see Barbie^TM take up the motherboard and become a computer engineer. Imagine all the bespectacled heads she'd turn in the office?

In Canada, only about 25% of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) workers are women, and that's got to change. In one of the fastest growing industries, women are being left out. The really scary news is that more and more women are choosing not to join the Advanced Technology Sector. A recent report by ICTC states that enrollment in computer science and engineering programs by women is at its all time low. This means bad news for women (fewer high-paying jobs, fewer job opportunities) and for the country (less diverse workforce, fewer qualified and trained professionals).

Barbie^TM to the rescue? When I was a little girl, I wanted to be an astronaut-princess when I grew up. So what did I do? I put my Barbie^TM dolls in tutus and tiaras, and flew them to the moon, a.k.a. my mom's turkey platter. There's a lot of research that suggests that women rely more on mentors and role models when making career decisions than men. Could Barbie^TM be STEM's knight in shining stilettos? All I know, is it's a start.

I may not be an astronaut-princess now that I'm all (almost) grown up (where's a "blogger" Barbie^TM when you need her?) but knowing that I could be anything I wanted to be, however improbable, was an important part of growing up. If, instead of tiaras and tutus, we could give little girls mini-laptops and geek-chic glasses, the future of STEM might just look a bit brighter.