Today ESA released the second in a series of reports on STEM – science, technology, engineering and mathematics: Women in STEM: A Gender Gap to Innovation [1] finds that women earn significantly more in STEM than non-STEM professions, and experience a smaller wage disparity -- yet they are woefully underrepresented in STEM college degrees and professions.
The report is about an opportunity and an imperative for American women and for our nation’s future as a global leader in innovation and competitiveness. But, to get there, we must first understand the current state of affairs, and we must ask: when it comes to STEM, where are the women?
More women attend college than men. More women graduate from college than men. More women attend post-college programs than men. And these facts have been true for some time, as women have steadily caught up and surpassed men in several measures of educational attainment over the past few decades, and as shown in ESA’s previous report on Women in America [2].
In stark contrast to these trends, the report released today shows that women remain significantly underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and math, both in terms of jobs and degrees. Looking back over the past decade or so, not only do women lag behind men in STEM, but they have made no progress in catching up. Although women comprise 48 percent of the workforce, they hold only 24 percent of STEM jobs. Even when you look more closely at precise slices of the population (such as by education), women remain significantly underrepresented, affording a valuable opportunity for them to gain a greater purchase on an important and lucrative educational and career path that is key to America’s innovation and competitiveness.
The results identified in this report beg a couple of questions, including why it is happening, and why it is important. Let’s start with why it’s important. First, STEM jobs pay well, as shown in our earlier analysis [3]. Second, in order for America to become more competitive, our country needs workers with the right skill sets to propel innovation, and STEM competency is important for innovation. Third, it’s important for women and for America’s future that we leverage this under-tapped resource, by encouraging from an early age women’s access to education as well as workforce opportunities in STEM.
Finally, we turn to the question of why these results exist which is more difficult to answer. Here at ESA, our job is primarily to use data to inform discussion rather than to speculate on the possible underlying forces that shape demographic trends. With that caveat in mind, several hypotheses have been offered, including: STEM career paths may not be as accommodating to people cycling in and out of the workforce to raise families; there are relatively few female STEM role models; and perhaps there are gender stereotypes that discourage women from pursuing STEM education and STEM jobs. This is by no means an exhaustive or scientific list, and I’m looking forward to the discussion that our report [1] generates.
Key findings from ESA’s STEM II report include:
- Women with STEM jobs earned 33 percent more than comparable women in non-STEM jobs – considerably higher than the STEM premium for men. As a result, women in STEM come closer to wage parity.
- Women hold a disproportionately low share of STEM undergraduate degrees, particularly in engineering.
- Women with a STEM degree are less likely to work in a STEM occupation than their male counterparts; they are more likely to work in education or healthcare.
~Mark Doms, Chief Economist, U.S. Department of Commerce
August 3, 2011
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