Are there still gender disparities in STEM education?
Yes
While women earn close to half of all bachelor’s degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), there is wide variation in women’s representation across fields. In 2017, 49% of all bachelor’s degrees in science and engineering were awarded to women. This number masks substantial gender disparities across fields, however. Women earned two-thirds of bachelor’s degrees in life sciences, psychology, and social science fields — 62% in biology, 78% in psychology, and 61% in social science. In contrast, women represented only slightly more than one quarter of degree recipients in the combined math-intensive fields of geoscience (39%), engineering (22%), economics (32%), mathematics (42%), computer science (19%), and the physical sciences (40%).
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources:
EconoFact Are Women Reaching Parity with Men in STEM?
National Science Foundation Higher Education in Science and Engineering
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