Gender Inequality in STEM Fields

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, or STEM, fields are exceedingly male dominated with women making up only 24 percent of such occupations in the United States. Starting from a young age, girls are made to believe that their abilities are not sufficient enough satisfy the requirements in such ‘complicated’ fields and that boys are just more suitable for such jobs. Many are taught and that even if they were to take interest in such subjects, it would be unnecessary since the fields are male dominated and they would never be able to excel in them. Overall societal pressures and expectations force women to conform to gender norms that hinder their participation and development in STEM fields. Gender inequality in STEM fields reflect hierarchical system that further discourages women from working in them.

Gender disparities in scientific field expectations start at a young age. Researchers such as Sadker and Zittleman suggest that the classroom environment in elementary schools often favor boys over girls as studies showed that “teachers called on boys more, commented more on their work, and praised them more” , creating a discouraging environment for young girls making them feel less competent in academic fields. Corroborated by researcher, Andre found that boys in the same grade feel they have a higher proficiency in physical sciences than girls , leading to girls in grades 4-6 often feeling that boys are better at math and sciences, particularly physical sciences. A decrease in science ability perception for students in grades 5-8 existed for girls only ; these misconceptions reflect career aspirations as a report by the US Department of Education found that, “boys were more than twice as likely as girls to aspire to be scientists or engineers (9 and 3 percent, respectively)” as early as the eighth grade . This evidence points to a societal perception that young girls experience and believe that science is for boys and not for girls. While these girls were taught names of great scientists such as Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, and Galileo Galilei, all who were males, they were never exposed to any female professionals in such fields. Without any women role models to look up to, the girls were subconsciously made to believe that women were just not fit to do such jobs. This perception continued to exist in the home as well as the school with even parents having higher expectations for boys’ scientific abilities ; girls had no place to stand in STEM subjects.

Even after entering STEM majors, women continue to face societal pressures and negative stereotypes about their abilities in colleges . A survey of college freshmen by the Higher Education Research Institute showed that 29 percent of male freshmen planned to enter STEM majors while only 15 female freshmen planned to enter similar majors. Gender roles tie women to certain fields even within STEM that are more generally seen as jobs for ‘caregivers’ as seen in 1999 while 4 percent of women and 20 percent of men planned to major in computer science and engineering, in biological or health sciences, the percentages between men and women were very similar. At post-secondary level, women were less likely to earn a degree in STEM fields than men, with the exception to this gender imbalance is in the life sciences. Historically biological sciences were tied with medical fields that were seen as ‘nurturing’ acts, tied with women’s place in society. This ties back in with women’s childhoods in which they were encouraged to believe that they did not have the mental capacity to analyze mathematical concepts as sufficiently as boys. This has nothing to do with actual ability, however as, “on average, high school girls take more math and science credits and earn higher grades in these subjects than boys”. Women also have higher GPAs on average than men in all majors, including STEM majors. The fact that there is no disparity between men and women in their STEM ability, and that elementary school girls and boys generally have equal interest in science suggests that there are societal expectations prevent women from entering STEM majors as they mature.

The workforce also demonstrates gender inequality in STEM fields. This inequality is often measured by the pay gap, as “women working full time in engineering and architecture earned only about 93 percent of what their male colleagues earned”. While women engineers and architects earn an average of 105 percent of their male colleagues in their first year out of college, attributing to efforts to encourage girls to enter engineering fields, this gap soon reversed over time. As much as 38% of female students who remained in STEM fields expressed concerns that they would be in a better financial situation if they had not taken up these male dominated careers, leading them to experience less satisfaction with the workplace environment in STEM fields than men as evidenced by their greater faculty turnover (Xu 2008). Despite women being equally committed to their jobs, the STEM workplace is more supportive to men than women. At work, the bosses expect less participation in the job from women than from men (Xu 2008), suppressing them from expressing their full potential. Even after thirty years since Congress’s outlawing of sex discrimination in education, the gender divided in career and technical education (CTE) has narrowed barely at all (Toglia 2013).

With constant suppression from society, women cannot prosper or enter as a dominant figure in scientific fields. To allow more women to participate in such fields, it is essential that the same academic opportunities are given to girls as the boys at an early stage at their lives. Without an equal distribution of gender in specific STEM roles, a hierarchical society will continue to build, going against the foundation of American ideals focusing on equality for all. Women are constantly undermined for their abilities to perform adequately in technological fields and are forced to conform under such misconceptions. The patriarchal stereotypes trap women seeking an opportunity in STEM fields in the United States of America.

Works Cited
Toglia, Thomas V. "Gender Equity Issues In CTE And STEM Education." Tech Directions 72.7 (2013): 14-17. Academic Search Complete. Web. 11 Dec. 2014.

Xu, Yonghong. "Gender Disparity In STEM Disciplines: A Study Of Faculty Attrition And Turnover Intentions." Research In Higher Education 49.7 (2008): 607-624. Academic Search Complete. Web. 11 Dec. 2014.