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Disparity Between Males And Women In The Education System

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Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) job industries are clearly a minority group as opposed to males. And each of these statistics above has been used to analyze and raise awareness about the discrepancy between genders within STEM occupations. However, there seems to be lesser research on the education system that feeds into these work opportunities. It is vital to note that the disadvantage for women in STEM starts well before they enter the workforce; it starts when females are young, and still within the educational system. Additionally, the disparity between males and females in STEM extends much further than the educational system, into popular culture. Young girls and women, growing up in a society that …show more content…

Because there is less opportunity to switch between STEM industries, and because individuals cannot enter the STEM industries without a strong, targeted scientific background, it is key to focus on developing an effective educational system to feed women into the STEM workforce.
Granted, it must be noted that there is a high rate of women dropping out of scientific industries after having graduated, or having worked in the field. Research has shown that 38% of women who earn engineering degrees leave, or never enter that workforce (American Psychological Association, 2014). However, it is vital to keep in mind that this statistic is 38% of the few women who graduate with an engineering degree in the first place.
Not only are there few women earning STEM degrees, but there are also few female and university science teachers. A study reported that in high schools across the country, about 44% of science teachers were females (Bottia et al. 2015). Although this number seems to be very close to 50%, the study explains that this small gender discrepancies among science teachers have a profound impact on the number of students who decide to pursue a STEM degree. And that high schools which have more female STEM teachers, largely raise the chances of producing women who will

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