Thank you very much.
I have to say that one of the things I love about being an MP is panels like this today where I feel very inspired by this powerhouse of women we have here in front of us. I heard Dorothy say that if there's a voice, it will be heard. You guys are screaming—I'm sorry, you're not screaming, you're making your voices heard very much here today and I thank you for all of your work.
One of the things we need to do is to make sure that people are getting out a positive message but, as Saira said, the right message.
There was something we heard earlier in committee that I would like to ask you about because I think this is drilling down. We don't need a general message so much anymore that we want women in science and technology. We need to say what areas of science and technology because we do have some information on this. Statistics Canada shows that 39% of university grads, 25 to 34 years old, were women who took a STEM degree. Among those grads, 59% of them took science and technology. Only 23% took engineering, math, and computer science. What the statistics were showing, and we've had a couple of previous witnesses saying, was that women tend to take the soft sciences and the life sciences. Those are not high-paying jobs as much as computer science, engineering, and math.
To your point, if we're thinking about women in higher-paying jobs, it would seem to me that we need to get the message out that women should be looking at those fields, not just the general science field but those particular fields. I just wanted a chance for maybe all of you to quickly touch on that so that I can also ask you about something else.
Maybe Saira, we'll start with you and work our way across—just quickly, please.