Statistics About Womxn in STEM

It is pretty well known that within STEM majors, womxn are not a large percentage but has increased throughout the years. Every year, more and more womxn are majoring and obtaining degrees in STEM. But what causes womxn not to pursue STEM? Gender stereotypes often play a role in the lack of womxn in any field but especially in STEM.

In the U.S, womxn take up less than 50% of degrees earned at any level in all STEM fields as shown on the left. As the level of a degree increases, less and less womxn are obtaining those degrees. For example, womxn in computer and information sciences earn about 20% of PhDs received. But why is that? Is it because womxn aren't pushed to pursue higher degrees or is it because womxn go through a hard enough time obtaining their bachelor's degree that they don't want to go through the same experience again? Gender stereotypes and the fact that men dominate the field can often be discouraging, even for me.

If womxn made a up a small portion of those obtaining STEM degrees, womxn of color earning STEM degrees is even smaller. In 2017-2018, womxn of color earned 14.1% of bachelor's degrees all STEM fields, this includes Asian womxn (5.3%), Black womxn (2.9%), Latinx womxn (4.3%) and American Indian/Alaska Native womxn (0.1%). For a lot of these marginalized group of womxn, it's hard to find resources that help you navigate higher education especially when you're first generation.

But the most impactful moment when in STEM is walking into a lecture hall and seeing the limited amount of womxn. In a core STEM subject course, 35 out of 100 individiuals are womxn. For example, at my university one of my courses has 200 students, and I am one of about 70 womxn taking the course at that time. It margin between womxn and men in STEM is so large and seeing this can make a womxn not want to pursue STEM. You see the consistent dominance of men in STEM and all your courses.

You can continue viewing more statistics on womxn in STEM and you'll always be shocked. For me, I already knew womxn in STEM were a small group and that Latinx womxn are STEM are even smaller, but knowing the actual statistics of it just continues to solidify that idea. Womxn are marginalized in higher education, and continue to be even more marginalized if part of minority racial/ethnic group. It comes to a point that you wonder whether that marginalization starts at a young age like in kindergarten. Are womxn being discouraged early on in life and that leads to the lack of those obtaining a STEM degree and once receiving a bachelor's degree, they feel even more marginalized that they don't pursue a master's or PhD? We have to stop the constant cycle of womxn not belonging in STEM or womxn not being as competent to pursue STEM.