Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM): Quick Take

Education

The Gender Gap in STEM Begins with Education

Few women in the United States are earning degrees in STEM, except in the life sciences.¹

In 2016, Canadian women made up approximately one-third (34%) of all recipients of STEM bachelor’s degrees.⁴

The Fields of Engineering and Technology Are Especially Male-Dominated

Canadian women were less likely to pursue higher-paying STEM fields such as engineering or computer science in 2016.⁵

In the European Union (EU-28), women accounted for slightly over half (53.3%) of tertiary education⁷ graduates in the natural sciences and mathematics and statistics but were only slightly over a quarter (27.7%) of engineering, manufacturing, and construction tertiary education graduates in 2016.⁸

The gender gap is especially wide in information and communication technologies, where women were less than a fifth (18.8%) of tertiary education graduates.⁹

Women in India earned over half of undergraduate degrees in both Information Technology (51.9%) and Science (51.3%) but remained underrepresented in engineering and technology undergraduate degrees overall (31.7%) in 2017–18.¹⁰

• Yet women in India are only 30% of the Information Technology workforce and only about 10% of computer science researchers.¹¹

In 2017, undergraduate women in Japan represented just 14.5% of engineering majors and 27.2% of physical science majors.¹²

Women of Color Earn the Smallest Share of STEM Degrees

The share of STEM degrees is even smaller for women of color in the United States. In 2015–2016, women of color earned a small percentage of bachelor’s degrees across all STEM fields:¹³

• Asian women: 5.0%
• Black women: 2.9%
• Latinas: 3.8%

Labor Force

Men Continue to Dominate the STEM Workforce in Many Countries

Averaged across regions, women accounted for less than a third (28.8%) of those employed in scientific research and development (R&D) across the world in 2015.¹⁴

Central Asia (48.1%), Latin American and the Caribbean (45.4%), Central and Eastern Europe (39.5%), and the Arab States (39.8%) are the only regions in which women represented over a third of the R&D workforce.¹⁵

Women in Australia made up only 27% of the STEM workforce across all sectors in 2016.¹⁶

• Women accounted for only 12.4% of engineers in Australia’s labor force in 2016.¹⁷
• As of August 2018, women in Australia made up less than a quarter (22.8%) of those employed in computer system design and related services.¹⁸

Among young Canadians (aged 25 to 34) holding bachelor’s degrees in STEM fields, men were almost twice as likely to work in science and technology jobs as women in 2016.¹⁹

• Women made up under a quarter (22.3%) of computer and information systems professionals, and only one in seven (13%) of civil, mechanical, electrical, and chemical engineers in Canada.²⁰

Women in the United States made up less than one-quarter (24%) of those employed in STEM occupations in 2015.²¹

• A substantial gender gap in engineering and computer occupations contributes to women’s overall underrepresentation in STEM.²²

In 2017, women in the United States represented:²³

• 25.5% of computer and mathematical occupations.
• 16.2% of architecture and engineering occupations.

Fewer than two in ten science and engineering employees in the United States were women of color in 2015:²⁴

• Asian Women: 6.5%
• Black women: 1.6%
• Latinas: 1.8%

The Gender Gap in High Tech Is Especially Wide

Certain high-tech jobs have a much bigger gap. In 2017, women in the United States accounted for less than 20% of those employed in those positions, including:²⁵

• Software developers, applications and systems software (18.7%).
• Computer network architects (4.2%).
• Aerospace engineers (8.9%).

In the EU-28, women were just 32.6% of those employed in high-tech manufacturing and knowledge-intensive high-tech services in 2017.²⁶

Unequal Treatment at Work Is a Leading Reason Women Leave STEM Careers²⁷

Work experiences impact women’s decisions to leave. Isolation, male-dominated work environments, bias and a lack of effective women role models are other factors pushing women to leave STEM jobs.²⁸

• Once women enter the tech field, they are 45% more likely to leave than men.²⁹

Bright Spot: Women in Europe Are Closing the Gender Gap in Science and Engineering³⁰

In 2017, women made up more than a third (40.5%) of scientists and engineers in the EU-28, an increase of more than 28% since 2007.³¹

Japan Set Targets to Improve Share of Women Researchers in STEM³²

In 2006, the Government of Japan established targets for women researchers in science to 20% and in engineering to 15%.³³ As of 2016, these targets have not been met.³⁴

• As of March 2017, only 15.7% of Japan’s researchers in science and technology were women.³⁵

Leadership

STEM Fields Have Fewer Women on Boards Than Other Industries³⁶

When compared to other industries (including non-STEM), the information technology industry had the lowest representation of women. Just over a quarter (28.5%) of companies surveyed still had zero women on their boards in 2017 and only 18% had three or more women.³⁷

Women with technology experience may have an advantage in the boardroom. In 2016, women on corporate boards (16%) were almost twice as likely as their male counterparts (9%) to have professional technology experience among 518 Forbes Global 2000 companies.³⁸

The Pay Gap

Even in High-Paying STEM Jobs, Women Earn Less Than Men³⁹

In 2015, Canadian women who graduated with bachelor’s degrees in STEM earned just 82.1% of the earnings of their male counterparts.⁴⁰

Even after more than thirty years of equal pay legislation, women in the European Union who worked in professional, scientific and technical activities earned 73.4% of what men did in 2014.⁴¹

In the United States, women in computer, engineering, and science occupations were paid an estimated 80.3% of men’s annual median earnings in 2017.⁴²

• While earning less than their male counterparts, women still receive a high premium for working in STEM. Women in STEM jobs earn 35% more than women in non-STEM jobs and 40% more than men in non-STEM jobs.⁴³

Additional Resources

Next Steps

Catalyst, Ask Catalyst Express: STEM.

Anita Bourg Institute, “Resources for Organizations.”

Research

Full List of Catalyst Quick Takes on STEM Topics.

Erin A. Cech and Mary Blair-Loy, “The Changing Career Trajectories of New Parents in STEM,” PNAS (March 5, 2019).

Heather Foust-Cummings, Laura Sabtattini and Nancy Carter, Women in Technology: Maximizing Talent, Minimizing Barriers, (Catalyst, 2008).

Cary Funk and Kim Parker, Women and Men in STEM Often at Odds Over Workplace Equity (Pew Research Center, 2018).

Allison Scott, Freada Kapor Klein, Frieda McAlear, Alexis Martin, and Sonia Koshy, The Leaky Tech Pipeline: A Comprehensive Framework for Understanding and Addressing the Lack of Diversity Across the Tech Ecosystem (Kapor Center, February 2018).

Aarti Shyamsunder and Nancy Carter, High Potentials Under Pressure in India’s Technology Sector (Catalyst, 2014).

Joan C. Williams, Su Li, Roberta Rincon, and Peter Finn, Climate Control: Gender and Racial Bias in Engineering? (Society of Women Engineers, October 2016).

DEFINITION: “STEM” refers to the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. There is no standard definition of a STEM occupation. For the purposes of this Quick Take, STEM incorporates professional and technical support occupations in the areas of life and physical sciences, computer science and mathematics, and engineering. Less agreement has been made on the inclusion of educators, healthcare professionals, and social scientists in STEM; therefore, these occupations are not covered here.⁴⁴

How to cite this product: Catalyst, Quick Take: Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) (June 14, 2019).

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3. National Center for Education Statistics, “Table 318.45: Number and Percentage Distribution of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Degrees/Certificates Conferred by Postsecondary Institutions, by Race/Ethnicity, Level of Degree/Certificate, and Sex of Student: 2008-09 through 2015-16,” Digest of Education Statistics: 2016 Tables and Figures (2017).
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