This report is not able, nor designed to show the explicit causes of the gender gap in STEM fields; our data visuals are aimed at explicitly revealing the urgency of inviting more women and girls into STEM careers. Our data provides demonstrable grounds to legitimize policies aimed at reducing the gender gap by incentivizing girls, from a young age, to pursue STEM majors. The statistics presented in this analysis are capable of incentivizing policy makers to begin filling in the cracks that girls too often slip through in their pursuit of a STEM major. Such policy-makers would see enormous results by simply constructing learning environments that are conducive to the success of young girls in STEM fields. In this analysis, we affirm that while the gender gap tips in favor of women among health and biology related majors, men dominate the engineering, physical sciences and mathematics majors leading them to hold approximately 75% of STEM careers today.

******

While more than sixty percent of biology majors are female, men continue to dominate the STEM fields (Eddy). The data summarized in the graphs titled “Health” and “Biology & Life Sciences” explicitly show that women outnumber men in these STEM realms. The graph “Health” explicitly shows that women earn the majority share of degrees in all seven majors related to physical health, most notably in nursing. Secondly, across all majors that fall under the umbrella of biology and life science, women earn the majority of degrees, most dominantly in the biology major. Judging from the strikingly high proportion of women majoring in biology, one may jump to the conclusion that the gender gap in this particular STEM discipline simply does not exist; researchers from Arizona State University conducted a national study to challenge the legitimacy of this conclusion (Eddy). The researchers found “evidence of gender-based gaps in both achievement and class participation” to be present in biology courses across the country (Eddy). In terms of the gender-based achievement gap, the research proved that “female [biology] students had average exam scores of 2.8 percent lower than male students” (Eddy). This gap in performance is likely stimulated by the lack of female voices in the classroom. Researchers found that 63% of those who volunteered their answers most frequently were men, despite males comprising only 40% of the total number of students in a given classroom (Eddy). One researcher stated plainly that “if females aren’t heard as often as males, they don’t have the same opportunity to succeed as biology majors.”(Eddy) In a nation where women have earned the majority of doctoral degrees for the 7th year in a row, female physicians make an average of $51,315 less than their male counterparts each year (Perry) (Caplan-Bricker). These known facts coincide with our data that displays women obtaining the majority of biology degrees, yet failing to level the playing field with men in STEM careers collectively. How is it that women, who are of majority presence in the field of biology, hold less than 25% of all STEM related jobs? (Beede) In search for an answer, researchers and statisticians look to the absence of female students aspiring towards STEM majors such as engineering, physical science and mathematics.

******

Our data summarized in graphs titled “Engineering”, “Physical Sciences” and “Computers and Mathematics” affirms that the percentage of women earning health and life-science related majors is not reflective of the collective female presence in STEM. Within the graph titled “Engineering”, men obtain the majority of engineering-related degrees in every sector of the field from aerospace to mechanical engineering. This graphic clearly depicts women holding the most disproportionate share of degrees in civil engineering, computer engineering, electrical engineering, general engineering and mechanical engineering. Within the “Computers and Mathematics” sector, men outnumber women in all seven majors derived from this technological realm of STEM, most notably in the computer science major. Finally, in “Physical Sciences” the gender gap persists but to a lesser extreme, with men and women appearing to obtain an equal number of degrees in each subcategory with the exception of the physics major, where men earn a highly disproportionate share of degrees. An analysis of this data affirms that women hold a “disproportionately low share of STEM undergraduate degrees, particularly in engineering” (Beede),
In research designed to look into the causes of the lack of female presence in these particular STEM fields, many cite the “lack of female role models, gender stereotyping, and less family-friendly flexibility in the STEM fields” as potential culprits (Beede). Stanford University engineer and business entrepreneur Debbie Sterling aims at reducing the gender-gap by “disrupting the pink aisle” of toys designed for young girls (CNBC). She looks at the systematic stereotype that ultimately propels the STEM gender gap from the introduction of boys to engineering with legos, trains and machine-themed toys and girls to princesses, clothes and babydolls. She is the founder of a shocking statistic: women struggle to develop the spatial skills necessary for engineering because their teachers and parents handed them “pink aisle” toys rather than the legos and building blocks that were gifted to their male counterparts which inspire the cognitive learning and growth conducive to engineering (CNBC). Society does not outwardly tell young girls that they are not meant to be engineers, rather society systematically pushes young boys towards STEM disciplines but neglects to do the same for young girls. This systematic stereotype that girls are simply not meant to pursue STEM related careers propels yet another contributor to the gender-gap: the lack of female role models succeeding in STEM today. The director of engineering at Facebook, Jocelyn Goldstein says that the reason there aren’t more women computer scientists is simply “because there aren’t more women computer scientists” (Islam), leaving no one for younger girls to look up to. It is clear that such a lack in role models in caused by the systematic gender stereotyping as illustrated by Debbie Sterling, however those women who do succeed in the path towards a STEM career are further hindered by the absence of family flexibility in the field (Beede). The single mother may be turned off to this field of employment due to findings that the “STEM career paths may be less accommodating to people cycling in and out of the work- force to raise a family” (Beede). The three-way intersection of these causes of the STEM gender-gap work together to account for the disappointing trends displayed in our data and provide the grounds from which solutions to this injustice can be found,
Our analysis provides demonstrable evidence that women earn a disproportionate number of STEM related degrees, but why should we care? In the United States today, women earn 77 cents for every dollar that a man earns, and comprise the vast majority of single parents (Islam). Women who pursue a STEM major and ultimately hold a career in STEM fields 29% more often, on average, than their female counterparts who do not hold a STEM degree. (Beede). It is clear that the remedy for the gender wage gap and financial stress of the single mother is introducing the next generation of girls to the STEM fields to ensure their success alongside their male counterparts (Islam). With 1.4 million computer specialist jobs projected to open in 2020, women who pursue STEM majors today are securing their future and actively playing a role in reducing the gender-wage gap (Islam). The financial security of a STEM career has the potential to remedy the financial burden of the single mother, and level overall earnings with men in the job market as a whole. Presented with data such as ours, legislators hold a responsibility to its female citizens to catalyze the introduction of women into STEM fields. Introducing revitalized learning programs, breaking down systematic stereotypes and legitimizing family flexibility are all prescriptions for the economic and social change that women and girls deserve. It is important that young girls look to successful millennial women, such as Hilary Clinton, who addressed millennial females and said “never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world to pursue and achieve your own dreams.” It is time to aid young women in their pursuit of their dreams to become biologists, engineers, computer scientists and mathematicians by seeing clearly the injustices explicitly presented in data such as our own and pushing policy makers to create a more just millennial world.

Sources

  1. Https://www.facebook.com/CNBC. “The Toy Industry Was Wrong about Girls.” CNBC. CNBC, 29 Mar. 2016. Web. 18 Dec. 2016.

  2. Perry, Mark J. “Women Earned Majority of Doctoral Degrees in 2015 for 7th Straight Year and Outnumber Men in Grad School 135 to 100.” American Enterprise Institute. N.p., 16 Sept. 2016. Web. 18 Dec. 2016. .

  3. Caplan-Bricker, Nora. “Female Doctors Make Way Less than Their Male Colleagues.” Slate Magazine. N.p., 12 July 2016. Web. 18 Dec. 2016. http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2016/07/12/a_new_jama_study_shows_the_gender_pay_gap_for_doctors_is_atrocious.html.

  4. Beede, David, Tiffany Julian, David Langdon, George McKittrick, Beethika Khan, and Mark Doms. “Women in STEM: A Gender Gap to Innovation.” Women in STEM: A Gender Gap to Innovation (n.d.): n. pag. Aug. 2011. Web. 18 Dec. 2016. http://www.esa.doc.gov/sites/default/files/womeninstemagaptoinnovation8311.pdf.

  5. S. L. Eddy, S. E. Brownell, M. P. Wenderoth. Gender Gaps in Achievement and Participation in Multiple Introductory Biology Classrooms. Cell Biology Education, 2014; 13 (3): 478 DOI: 10.1187/cbe.13-10-0204, https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140902171429.htm

  6. Islam, Celia. “Closing the STEM Gender Gap: Why Is It Important and What Can You Do to Help?” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 23 Jan. 2014. Web. 18 Dec. 2016. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/celia-islam/closing-the-stem-gender-g_b_3779893.html.