Despite some progress made to date, girls are still underrepresented in STEM fields.
- Women hold just 28 percent of jobs in STEM fields in the U.S., according to the American Association of University Women. This disparity contributes to the wage gap and a variety of other inequalities, and the disparity starts long before women get to college.
- Global female enrollment is particularly low in certain fields. Just 3% of students joining information and communication technology (ICT) courses across the globe are women. That improves slightly to 5% for mathematics and statistics courses. And it increases to 8% for engineering, manufacturing and construction courses.
- Even when they get the same grades, girls often feel they are less competent in the field than boys. And that may affect their choice to pursue STEM or not.
- What’s discouraging young women from choosing more classes in STEM is the false perception that STEM is more of a “man’s world.” Entrenched gender stereotypes and gender bias are driving girls and women away from going after careers in science, math, and tech-related fields.
- One dominant stereotype is that boys are better at math and science than girls, which studies show is not true.
- In addition, stereotypical traits of scientists such as objectivity and rationality are generally consistent with male gender-normative traits. Comparatively, women are seen as highly communal (i.e., kinder, warmer, empathetic) and less agentic (i.e., analytical, independent, and competitive) and therefore less likely to have the qualities and personality characteristics needed to be successful scientists
- Girls need encouragement to consider STEM fields to help reduce the gender wage gap. Not getting girls interested in STEM subjects leads to fewer women gaining access to potentially high-paying and rewarding careers.
- In a national study girls’ aptitude scores for STEM-related occupations far outweighed their self-defined interest in them. In fact, the research showed that female high school students demonstrated 10 times more aptitude than interest in some STEM career fields like architecture and engineering.
RSS Feed