As an IT executive and entrepreneur, I am consistently pushing academic leaders to focus on improving outcomes for women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) programs. I believe this is important, not just on a gender-equality level, but also because it’s better for society as a whole: having all the research and input from such important areas largely limited to the minds of only one gender creates a biased situation, regardless of how well-meaning the people involved may be.
Recent studies show that fewer women are enrolling in and graduating from STEM-based doctoral programs than other disciplines, even though women earn more doctorates overall. And a new report from The Ohio State University indicates that the fewer women entering a STEM class, the less likely any one of them will graduate within six years. We can do better.
This last article also found that women joining a “typically male” program (fewer than 38.5% females) were 7% less likely to graduate within six years; in cases where only one woman was in a new class, she is 12 percentage points less likely to graduate within six years than her male peers.
On the surface, these findings suggest schools are not doing enough to recruit and support women in STEM programs. But does that fully explain the situation?
Are We the Problem or the Solution?
It seems obvious that the most active way to boost female enrollment in engineering and technology degree programs is to nurture girls’ interest and confidence in STEM subjects, from elementary through high school. In fact, as much as possible, we need to remove the stigma of women in a “typically male” field altogether by teaching that there is no such thing a gender-specific area of study.
That’s well and good, but it may not be enough: currently, of all students taking the AP Computer Science exam in the United States, only 27% are female; a mere 18% of American computer-science college degrees go to women. But detractors often point to the fact that these statistics are from the US, where, according to one researcher, many college men “…proudly describe themselves as ‘male feminists’ and girls are taught they can be anything they want.”
Meanwhile, countries with horrid records of employment discrimination against women show stats that are noticeably different. Algeria, for example, can claim that a whopping 41% of STEM graduates are female.
So while it’s probable that we are not being as proactive as we should be in educating women on their available options, many countries who are actively discouraging women from succeeding at all are producing a higher rate of STEM-oriented graduates.
Does this suggest that encouraging gender equality is actually backfiring?
A Different Explanation
Are we pushing women away from STEM fields by opening up their options? Probably not. The fact that more women are graduating with STEM-based degrees in countries notorious for gender discrimination likely has less to do with aptitude for science or even particular interest in the field…and more to do with simple economics.
A new paper published in Psychological Science gives evidence that women in countries with higher gender inequality may pick a field based on a desire for financial independence…and that often drives them straight to STEM professions. This would also explain previous research demonstrating how gender segregation by field is more prominent in areas of advanced economic development.
Certainly, striving to produce an environment of overall gender equality can be a double-edged sword: by opening doors traditionally closed to women, we offer them opportunities to accomplish things that were unthinkable a generation ago. The (perhaps unfortunate) side-effect of this is that we’re also opening up the option for them to NOT go through those doors, as well.
In other words, leveling the playing field is good, but it may result in the ball rolling in a direction we weren’t counting on.
This distinction is relevant, but it hardly lets educators, employers, and female tech professionals off the hook: they—we—still play a crucial role in shifting the balance in the US within these fields. The overall number of females who were acknowledged (at some point in their academic careers) as excelling in science or math…is still greater than the number of females leaving school with degrees from STEM-related fields.
It’s possible that this is solely the result of having so many alternatives, but it is just as easy to draw the conclusion that a bias—tacit or implied—remains, one that is discouraging women from opting for STEM careers, despite their aptitude. To make progress, we must root out that bias and do our best to eradicate it.
When women have the incentive and support they need to enter and succeed in these fields, everyone wins—not just women, but universities, the work force, and the economy as a whole.
