Despite women making up nearly half of the U.S. workforce, they are still vastly underrepresented in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) workforce.
According to the Society of Women Engineers (2022), women represent about 34% of all STEM workers. Moreover, women comprise about 44% of STEM workers with at least a bachelor’s degree, which shows marginal improvement from 42% in 2010. However, women’s representation among STEM occupational clusters has not changed much since 2016.
8% of mechanical engineers are female, while only 18% of software developers and 28% of computer and information research scientists are women. Female hires in this fast-growing occupation cluster actually declined from 2000 to 2016, and have remained fairly dormant ever since. In 2019, 31% of women with a bachelor’s degree entered STEM occupations. Of those, only 8.9% worked in engineering occupations, whereas 20.9% of men with similar educational attainment worked in engineering occupations.
In short, the number of women in the engineering and IT fields remains well below the levels representing their male counterparts. Why is this the case?
Female Graduates Needed
Even though women are taking home more degrees than men, they are still underrepresented for graduate-level engineering and IT degrees. This disparity is reflected across the STEM educational ecosystem, especially throughout graduate programs in US colleges and universities.
According to the Council of Graduate Schools, women made up a larger share—about 60%— of master’s degree recipients in STEM fields. This is especially true in health-related degree programs such as nursing. However, the CGS study found that first-time doctoral program enrollment among females was 28.7% in engineering and 33.8% in math and computer sciences. Doctoral degrees awarded to women in these fields were 27.8% and 25.8%, respectively.
These statistics suggest that many more women are entering STEM programs than are graduating in key, high-earning fields. The reasons for this seem plain to me. We’re simply not doing enough to recruit, retain, and support women in STEM programs.
Nurturing Young STEM-Minded Women
I am an IT executive in a predominantly male-dominated industry. My experience leads me to believe that the best way to boost female enrollment in engineering and technology degree programs is to nurture girls’ interest and confidence in STEM subjects. This must be done from elementary through high school.
To my mind, a great place to start would be to increase female representation in engineering, math, and computer sciences by exposing more girls to these subjects at an early stage. We could accomplish this by including computer and coding classes in K–12 schools, which would expose more girls to these subjects at an early age.
It doesn’t end there, though. Colleges and universities could be doing more to promote STEM programs to females, and they could be offering better support to women who do enroll, too.
Universities could offer better financial incentives for female students who wish to pursue engineering or computer science degrees. They could do this by increasing scholarships and degree-based grant programs. Schools could also track female enrollment and graduation rates for STEM graduate programs. This would make it easier to provide more resources and support to female students who need it.
Additionally, colleges should aspire to hire more female STEM faculty. Those that have women leading doctoral classes should promote that fact. This single factor alone can inspire many young women to see themselves in these careers.
Employers Must Help, Too
Employers and women in tech careers should engage in mentorship programs to help guide and champion females as they pursue educational and professional goals.
Increasing the number of minorities and women in technology roles can create economic and competitive advantages for businesses. As a woman and job provider in the IT industry, I urge educators to commit to improving the academic climate for females in STEM programs.
Everyone wins when women have the support they need to enter and succeed in these fields. It’s not just women, but universities, employers and the economy as a whole.
