

Percentages range from a low of 54% to a high of 67%. And, even looking at various ethnicities, women still trail men in each group.Īcross all ethnicities, females were awarded more certificates, associate, and bachelor’s degrees in recent years. In all STEM fields, men still outstrip women by 64% to 36%. However, schools and universities still have some work to do.

This shows that the numbers of women earning STEM degrees and progressing into a STEM career are increasing. In 2015-16, 58% of women earned their undergraduate degree in a STEM field, as compared to 42% of male students.

Over the years, more female students have begun to earn bachelor’s degrees in STEM disciplines. Data from two large research samples now shows that, over the past 30 years, women are staying in their STEM degree programs this is called the STEM persistence rate. Women who progress from earning their bachelor’s in a STEM field are now, more often than not, continuing on to earn their PhDs and move into higher positions in their fields. When the term was first developed, various factors such as discrimination, lack of growth opportunities, and even bullying in the work environment led to women leaving their STEM professions. The likelihood that women would eventually leave a STEM pipeline after graduation used to be called the leaky pipeline. For the boys, “You’ll get it eventually” for the girls, “Maybe this just isn’t your thing”.

Even if two students, a boy and a girl, show the same amount of interest in math, they are often not given equal credit for their ability to understand numbers and frustration with the learning process may be met with different responses which can lead to different outcomes. While they may have received validation and encouragement from their parents, society sometimes still tries to steer them in other directions. Young girls who aspired to enter a STEM field in school often face an unspoken gender bias. The National Science Foundation (NSF) has been working to advocate for girls in STEM by offering scholarships for female STEM majors and even marketing to introduce girls to STEM careers. However, when we make assumptions and put our gender expectations on children’s interests, we are exercising bias. This discouragement isn’t necessarily biased or focused toward keeping girls out of science. Society, such as teachers, guidance counselors, and even parents and peers may discourage these educational and career goals. At young ages, girls may still be interested in working as scientists, engineers, or inventors. Both forms of bias are unpleasant and can have a huge effect on the people the biased individual interacts with.īias, conscious or unconscious, implicit or explicit, makes its way into STEM fields. In fact, their actions may oppose what they say they believe. Here, the person isn’t aware of what they are doing. Their actions are deliberately carried out. The first is conscious the person knows what they feel and think. There are different routes into STEM careers at 16 and 18, through apprenticeships or from relevant degrees.There are two kinds of bias. As the population grows, more homes will need to be built and the infrastructure in towns and cities will rely on skilled engineers. People who work in the health sector rely hugely on their scientific skills, whilst the finance sector requires people who are a whizz with numbers. Many of the jobs of the future will involve technology as the way that people work will continue to change. From designing visual fx for a new film, to working as a physiotherapist for an athlete, to inventing a new hi-tech health scanner, to manufacturing a racing car or putting new satellites into space there are thousands of exciting and well paid opportunities. With STEM skills, you can make a big contribution to many of the big challenges facing society today. Studying STEM subjects leads directly to a huge variety of exciting and rewarding career opportunities. Over 60% of all new jobs created are to be found in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths.
