Why women in Stem exit these careers earlier than male peers

An announcement by the National Industrial Training Authority (Nita), last week, called on female form four leavers from arid and semi-arid lands to apply for 25 sponsored places in engineering courses. This is the organisation’s contribution towards reducing gender disparities in science, technological, engineering and mathematical (Stem) subjects. The programme, started in 2006, has so far benefited 350 female students.

The Economic Survey report of 2023 shows that male students in technical and vocational education and training institutions outnumbered female ones in the last five years. In 2022, for example, there were 61,121 males against 52,492 females. Males also outnumbered females among those granted individual research licences in 2021/22 with the largest gap being in Information Communication Technology and infrastructure science, which featured 94 females against 152 males.

Gender gaps  

In The equality question: Advancing the participation of women and girls in Stem, the World Bank notes that although “women are more likely to go to university than men” globally, they are “less likely to study Stem fields”. Dissonance is noted between the number of women who study Stem and those who work in related careers, except in Eastern Europe where there is a positive correlation and where rates of employment for male and female Stem graduates is similar.

Another paradoxical finding is that there is a larger incidence of gender gaps in Stem in higher-income countries that have impressive gender equality indices. Such countries include Finland, Norway and Sweden. The gap is 7 per cent in low-income countries but widens to 15-17 per cent in upper-middle-income and high-income countries, respectively. The explanation advanced is based on the expectancy-value theory, that women in these countries will select humanities in which they perceive themselves to be strongest, despite their good performance in Stem.

The report also notes that women who study Stem “exit these careers earlier than male peers”, due to parental responsibilities, mobility restrictions, sexual harassment, discriminatory labour laws, lack of mentors, unequal pay and deficient opportunities for professional advancement. It is also a result of unmet expectations in that women find that engineering is not “devoted to tackling social challenges”, which is a key motivator for them. Thus, they revise their career goals.

Moreover, their low presence in the professional bodies makes them experience “loss of confidence and professional self-esteem”, resulting in career retardation. An interesting revelation is that female Stem graduates who end up in management are stigmatised as pseudo-engineers because they are not involved in technical work.  

Artificial intelligence

Using participation in research as a proxy indicator of women’s presence in Stem, the study established that there was “a precipitous drop” in women researchers relative to those graduating. While women account for 54 per cent of university graduates globally, “they represent only 34 per cent of researchers”. Those working in data and artificial intelligence, engineering, and computing were particularly few. This means women benefit less than men from the lucrative gains associated with working in Stem careers. This trend is sustained by discriminatory pay gaps with women paying the parenthood penalty.

Prominent among the causes of the disparity are stereotypes and biases, evident in perceptions by women themselves, parents, teachers, peers and co-workers about who is talented in and should work in Stem jobs. With reference to educational materials, the study observes that “men are more likely to be depicted as professionals in science (by name or illustration), while women are more likely to be depicted as teachers”.

It is theorised that these depictions psychologically influence children into internalising and fulfilling the stereotypes. Such biases are also contained in comments by teachers. In Zimbabwe, for example, teachers emphasised to girls that their vocation in life was to marry and do domestic work. They also depicted mathematics and physics as masculine and home economics, biology and tourism as feminine. These findings echo Anna Obura’s Shifting images: Portrayal of girls and women in Kenyan textbooks, published in 1991.

Female peers

The study recommends that interest in Stem be cultivated before tertiary enrolment. Children encouraged by parents to pursue Stem are noted to “become more interested in these subjects”, most such parents being graduates. Role models are considered important because they stimulate emulation and provide a reference point for girls. The contagion effect is also achieved through more female peers in classrooms, to inspire confidence and create collective momentum. Internship targeting secondary school girls is also highlighted.

Other solutions are “addressing gender biases in learning materials, participation in Stem-related extra-curricular activities… and promoting partnerships with the private sector”, the last through financial support to initiatives supporting Stem for girls.

This publication is a useful reference for initiatives working to boost girls and women’s participation in Stem. Readers will certainly be interested in adopting the examples provided of effective strategies to eliminate the disparities.

The writer is an international gender and development consultant and scholar ([email protected])