Women are Catalyzing STEM Careers Around the World

According to the 2011 U.S. Department of Commerce Women in STEM Executive Summary, women now make up 48% of the total workforce and 24% of all employees in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. That’s about half as many women working in STEM fields than would be expected if gender representation in those fields reflected the total workforce.

But Allison Heinonen, a junior health sciences major at Chapman University, and other young women like her, are aiming to change that.

“I think that women are perceived as not as competent as men in some aspects of science,” Heinonen said in an interview with Chapman’s paper, The Panther. She went on to explain that arguments like that are what drive her and other women to push harder to pursue these careers.

According to data from the American Association of University Women, it’s working. The percentage of doctorates earned by women in STEM fields has more than doubled between 1996 and 2006 alone. The industry is changing.

And that change is reflected in classrooms across the nation, too. In fact, girls are now pulling even with boys when it comes to enrollment in high school STEM classes. In addition, their scores are practically identical to their male counterparts, according to data collected by the National Girls Collaborative Project.

Unfortunately, the progress seems to come to a standstill outside of high schools. For example, the percentage of women majoring in a STEM field in the California State University system has remained stable since 2007 at 37%. Even though women make up more than half (55%) of graduates, the system is still seeing a surprising lack of STEM majors among them.

But the numbers don’t stop dropping off there, either. More data from the National Girls Collaborative Project reveals that only around 11% of physicists and astronomers are women, while only 10% of electrical and computer hardware engineers are.

So far, the number of women accepting STEM jobs hasn’t kept pace with the rate of technological change. A single automatic line in a PCB manufacturing facility can place and solder more components than 50 solderers working by hand. Without more women working in the field, there may be a lack of such innovation in the future.

Carol Tang, executive director of the Children’s Creativity Museum in San Francisco and head of the California Girls in STEM Collaborative, believes that this in no way means women aren’t capable of pursuing these careers.

“What this all means is that girls can do it, but they’re choosing not to,” she said in an interview with EdSource. “We need a diversity of viewpoints and perspectives in science and math. Every girl who drops out of STEM, we’re all going to feel it.”

Now, high schools and colleges alike are encouraging women in STEM fields like never before. UC Berkeley’s College of Education started a program called Girls in Engineering back in 2014. The initiative brings 120 middle-school girls to the campus for summer engineering courses taught by women who work and study in those fields. That’s just one of many such programs encouraging young women to take an interest in the sciences.

More and more organizations are realizing the importance of women in STEM fields, too, and it’s safe to say that the future looks bright.