fter decades of disadvantaged access to education, women today typically outperform men in educational outcomes. Girls get better grades in equally demanding classes and are even more likely to complete tertiary education. Despite the trends, the phenomenon of horizontal gender segregation—the tendency of women and men to sort themselves into different occupational areas by gender—persists. The underrepresentation of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) remains particularly striking.
In 2020, the average share of women enrolling in STEM undergraduate degrees was only about 31% across OECD countries, while the share of female enrollment in information, communication, and technology programs (ICT) was even lower, at around 20%. Until the early 2000s, was been wrongfully argued that by nature, women possess less mathematical ability, thus rarely pursue math-intensive careers. Yet gender differences in mathematical performance and standardized test scores have narrowed or even disappeared in many countries, making this assumption untrue. This calls for reflection on the socio-psychological traits for the persisting gender gap in STEM. In fact, it could be argued that math skills are not even necessary for many ICT roles.
Why We Should Care
Why should we care about that? Horizontal gender segregation impacts the gender pay gap—which is aggravated when women are underrepresented in high-paying STEM jobs. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics’ earnings data, 63% and 61% of all tech jobs pay above median salaries for men and women, respectively.
The pay gap is exacerbated by lower retention rates for women. Without addressing the retention issue to ensure under-represented workers progress to senior management-level positions this will persist. A further rationale is the already short supply of STEM professionals, with this shortage continuing to grow in the tech-hungry post-industrial world. Attracting traditionally underrepresented groups—such as women—for STEM careers is crucial to meet the needs of the labor market. In addition, reducing gender gaps in STEM careers stimulates economic growth and higher employment rates.
Perhaps most importantly, the lack of diversity in STEM limits the quality of innovations due to lack of different perspectives. Many products (including medicine and hardware) have been exclusively developed by and tested on men, which makes them less useful or safe to use for women.
Why Girls Don’t Choose STEM
What are the reasons for this lack of women representation in science? Depictions usually associated with people in STEM, are far from what most teenage girls would like to be compared with, especially if our society demands a feminine, glamorous, and fashionable woman as a cultural standard. Science and mathematics seem to be culturally associated with masculinity, thus it is no surprise that adolescent girls often think they do not have what it takes to pursue a STEM career. Furthermore, evidence shows that holding stereotypical beliefs about women in math is associated with perceiving other females with high math scores to be less feminine, less sexually attractive, and less likable. The findings also suggest that these math-related sexual attraction beliefs, in turn, lead girls to view mathematics as a less valuable subject for them. Empirical findings also suggest that females with a strong feminine identity show less interest in and enjoyment of STEM subjects, and less confidence in their STEM abilities. Other research points toward an anticipated lack of social acceptance, as well as the perception that females’ social identity is being negatively valued in STEM fields.
A further strand of research found that these gender-math stereotypes impair females’ performance and performance-related beliefs by activating the fear of potentially confirming these negative stereotypes—to others or themselves. The gender-confidence gap in STEM, with female students reporting much lower confidence in their math and science abilities than equally performing male students, is a strong driver of women’s underrepresentation in STEM, and can be largely explained by persisting gender-math stereotypes.
Finally, given the influence of these societal norms, it is not surprising that girls focus their efforts and interests on subjects where their participation is more valued and encouraged, such as languages and humanities. Consequently, females show a relative strength, i.e., better performance compared to their own performance in other subjects, in reading and language subjects, while male students show a relative strength in math and science in most countries. Since students might choose their career based on their own relative, not their absolute strengths, this may explain why less females end up choosing STEM careers.
How We Can Change That
Having reviewed some of the existing explanations for females’ underrepresentation in STEM, we purpose the following actions:
- Challenge the gender-math stereotype: Connecting STEM to positive encouragement, female roles, and real-world examples cultivates a healthy curiosity of the field for girls. It’s not necessarily about making tech “cool,” but we must acknowledge there are negative perceptions of working in tech. Parents and teachers play an important role in career choices. Their nurturing support can counteract unhealthy social norms, biases, and expectations in a field that is considered as a future cornerstone of modern life.
- Create safe spaces for girls: Mentoring and supportive learning environments both at home and at school are crucial to encourage more girls for a career in STEM. Certain gender-specific initiatives, such as gender-separate STEM classes or extracurricular activities such as girls’ STEM clubs are worth considering.
- Challenge the idea of the trade-off between language and STEM skills: Combining language and STEM education may raise girls’ interest in STEM while also challenging the idea that STEM jobs exclusively require numerical abilities and do not allow room for creativity.
This research note has been created in the aftermath of the 2022 Salzburg Global Seminar on Education Transformation and Gender, and stems from the SGS’ working group on STEM education. In this regard, we would also like to thank our colleague and Salzburg Global Fellow Valeria Valencia Siles, who has also contributed to the development of the ideas that are featured in this research note.
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Women Are Shunning STEM, That Has to Change
Photo by Julia Koblitz on Unsplash
February 10, 2023
Women are still grossly underrepresented in STEM and ICT programs despite clear evidence that bias claiming they are less suited to these roles is wrong. This is a problem, but SGS Fellows Lara Zwittlinger, Amy Kardel, and Horacio Alejandro Reyes Leon suggest actionable steps to change things.
A
fter decades of disadvantaged access to education, women today typically outperform men in educational outcomes. Girls get better grades in equally demanding classes and are even more likely to complete tertiary education. Despite the trends, the phenomenon of horizontal gender segregation—the tendency of women and men to sort themselves into different occupational areas by gender—persists. The underrepresentation of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) remains particularly striking.
In 2020, the average share of women enrolling in STEM undergraduate degrees was only about 31% across OECD countries, while the share of female enrollment in information, communication, and technology programs (ICT) was even lower, at around 20%. Until the early 2000s, was been wrongfully argued that by nature, women possess less mathematical ability, thus rarely pursue math-intensive careers. Yet gender differences in mathematical performance and standardized test scores have narrowed or even disappeared in many countries, making this assumption untrue. This calls for reflection on the socio-psychological traits for the persisting gender gap in STEM. In fact, it could be argued that math skills are not even necessary for many ICT roles.
Why We Should Care
Why should we care about that? Horizontal gender segregation impacts the gender pay gap—which is aggravated when women are underrepresented in high-paying STEM jobs. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics’ earnings data, 63% and 61% of all tech jobs pay above median salaries for men and women, respectively.
The pay gap is exacerbated by lower retention rates for women. Without addressing the retention issue to ensure under-represented workers progress to senior management-level positions this will persist. A further rationale is the already short supply of STEM professionals, with this shortage continuing to grow in the tech-hungry post-industrial world. Attracting traditionally underrepresented groups—such as women—for STEM careers is crucial to meet the needs of the labor market. In addition, reducing gender gaps in STEM careers stimulates economic growth and higher employment rates.
Perhaps most importantly, the lack of diversity in STEM limits the quality of innovations due to lack of different perspectives. Many products (including medicine and hardware) have been exclusively developed by and tested on men, which makes them less useful or safe to use for women.
Why Girls Don’t Choose STEM
What are the reasons for this lack of women representation in science? Depictions usually associated with people in STEM, are far from what most teenage girls would like to be compared with, especially if our society demands a feminine, glamorous, and fashionable woman as a cultural standard. Science and mathematics seem to be culturally associated with masculinity, thus it is no surprise that adolescent girls often think they do not have what it takes to pursue a STEM career. Furthermore, evidence shows that holding stereotypical beliefs about women in math is associated with perceiving other females with high math scores to be less feminine, less sexually attractive, and less likable. The findings also suggest that these math-related sexual attraction beliefs, in turn, lead girls to view mathematics as a less valuable subject for them. Empirical findings also suggest that females with a strong feminine identity show less interest in and enjoyment of STEM subjects, and less confidence in their STEM abilities. Other research points toward an anticipated lack of social acceptance, as well as the perception that females’ social identity is being negatively valued in STEM fields.
A further strand of research found that these gender-math stereotypes impair females’ performance and performance-related beliefs by activating the fear of potentially confirming these negative stereotypes—to others or themselves. The gender-confidence gap in STEM, with female students reporting much lower confidence in their math and science abilities than equally performing male students, is a strong driver of women’s underrepresentation in STEM, and can be largely explained by persisting gender-math stereotypes.
Finally, given the influence of these societal norms, it is not surprising that girls focus their efforts and interests on subjects where their participation is more valued and encouraged, such as languages and humanities. Consequently, females show a relative strength, i.e., better performance compared to their own performance in other subjects, in reading and language subjects, while male students show a relative strength in math and science in most countries. Since students might choose their career based on their own relative, not their absolute strengths, this may explain why less females end up choosing STEM careers.
How We Can Change That
Having reviewed some of the existing explanations for females’ underrepresentation in STEM, we purpose the following actions:
- Challenge the gender-math stereotype: Connecting STEM to positive encouragement, female roles, and real-world examples cultivates a healthy curiosity of the field for girls. It’s not necessarily about making tech “cool,” but we must acknowledge there are negative perceptions of working in tech. Parents and teachers play an important role in career choices. Their nurturing support can counteract unhealthy social norms, biases, and expectations in a field that is considered as a future cornerstone of modern life.
- Create safe spaces for girls: Mentoring and supportive learning environments both at home and at school are crucial to encourage more girls for a career in STEM. Certain gender-specific initiatives, such as gender-separate STEM classes or extracurricular activities such as girls’ STEM clubs are worth considering.
- Challenge the idea of the trade-off between language and STEM skills: Combining language and STEM education may raise girls’ interest in STEM while also challenging the idea that STEM jobs exclusively require numerical abilities and do not allow room for creativity.
This research note has been created in the aftermath of the 2022 Salzburg Global Seminar on Education Transformation and Gender, and stems from the SGS’ working group on STEM education. In this regard, we would also like to thank our colleague and Salzburg Global Fellow Valeria Valencia Siles, who has also contributed to the development of the ideas that are featured in this research note.
