Gender Gap In Science

Education seems to be a major factor in what determines starting wages in a person’s career. Women in the past were less inclined to have degrees in science and technology as opposed to their male counterparts. Careers in science and technology are in high demand because we are living in a rapidly evolving technological era. Though the number of women entering the science and technology field is increasing, there is still not enough women to make up for the mass majority of men having more of these high-paying jobs, thus, creating an overall salary differential. Naadiya Moosajee, co-founder of WomENG, recognizes the change from women who were once only users of technology to a time where they are now developers and creators of it. This will make great strides in closing the pay gap between men and women. There is much room for improvement that needs to be made with the lack of education among women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to deplete the inequalities with earnings (Moosajee 27). In addition to that, technology fields in particular have not been very favorable to women given that it represents females so sparingly. In “The Need for Gender Diversity in Technology”, Holly Grogan expresses technology jobs are not very appealing to women and have very small numbers of prominent women

The force of societal stereotypes is a large part of this gap. Instead of joining STEM careers, the most common careers among women are secretaries, nurses, and elementary and middle school teachers (Mandell). This truly illustrates that when well-rounded, talented women have the choice, they are inclined to delve into the field in which society expects them to belong. In this way, the stereotype of women not being involved in STEM is forcing less women to be involved in these fields. The deficiency of women in technical fields, despite their well-roundedness and ability, can be directly related to unyielding cultural stereotypes that stigmatize women in supposedly masculine fields.

In a speech in February 2013 President Barak Obama said, “One of the things that I really strongly believe in is that we need to have more girls interested in math, science, and engineering. We’ve got half the population that is way underrepresented in those fields and that means that we’ve got a whole bunch of talent…not being encouraged the way they need to.” It been three years since President Obama has made that statement and the underrepresentation of women in science, technology, engineering and math as known as STEM majors is still a big problem today. The STEM workforce is crucial to Americas global competitiveness and groundbreaking capability. The people who work in the STEM field make up nearly half of the United

There is a common belief that we do not see many women and minorities in tech because  that there are simply not enough female and minority students studying math and science.

Since the beginning, men have ruled the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Which explains the huge gender gap in STEM jobs. As of 2009, women occupied 24% of STEM jobs. Many of these women work in the science field. Only about 12% of women occupy the engineering and computer science field.

Traditionally, men take on the manufacturing, engineering, science occupations in society. Since the 1970’s women’s representation in science, engineering, mathematics, and technology, a group of subjects known as STEM, occupations has increased; but younger girls, under 40, remain underrepresented in these occupations (Census). Furthermore, within the group of few but strong females a part of STEM lies a huge discrepancy between employment of whites and Asians, compared to Africans, Hispanics, and native Americans. Although it is hard to identify the reason for the limited amount of girls in these subject areas, some specialist speculate lack of girls is due to stereotyping threat, stigmas of females lacking the intelligence to comprehend

Men are the people who have the most rank in technical skills. There has not been any growth in jobs in STEM since 2000 for women. It has been said that the pattern may begin in early education. Females may not be encouraged to study math and science as much as males are encouraged to do so. Very few of females who earn bachelor’s degree do so in the area of STEM. However, slightly over half of bachelor’s degrees are earned by women. Many people believe that females lack the intelligence to be successful in STEM. Others believe women do better in skills such as education, and humanitarian roles such as doctor’s an lawyers. Sometimes women themselves believe that men have what it takes to be successful in STEM. Sometimes females have “self-esteem”

Industry , government, and academic leaders argue that americans should make the science, technology, engineering and mathematical fields (STEM) more accessible. “They have high-quality, knowledge-intensive jobs that lead to discovery and new technology,” improving the U.S. economy and standard of living;(Lavender 1). One focus area for increasing the STEM workforce has been to reduce disparities in STEM employment by sex, race, and Hispanic origin. Actually, women, Blacks, and Hispanics have been underrepresented in the STEM employment. Some researchers find that women, Blacks, and Hispanics are less likely to be in a science or engineering major at the start of their college experience, and less likely to remain in these majors by its conclusion.

The U.S. Department of Education recently reported that even though relatively more female high school graduates took advanced STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) courses than male counterparts, their interests in STEM subjects were significantly low regardless of race/ethnicity (U.S. Department of Education, 2015). Furthermore, there are significantly less women who completed STEM degrees compared to men (Lee, Alston, & Kahn, 2015). This gender discrepancy has been the key goal for the researchers for the last decades, and many studies have examined how to promote gender parity in STEM fields.

In the technology field, there is a constant change in the different technological advancements and discoveries. Within that field though there is a problem, out of all the jobs that the entire tech field can offer, only twenty-six percent of them are filled by women. The number of women in the tech field is extremely low. Men have most the jobs and high ranking positions, compared to the few women that do. This problem is something that could easily be fixed, but there is not enough public knowledge about what all the tech field has to offer. The stereotype that men should be the only ones that work in the world of computers is something that needs to be broken. Women have the same abilities that men do and should be given an equal opportunity

Though it is extremely difficult to single out one brilliant instructor from the renowned faculty of undergraduate and graduate studies at Stanford, I would have to choose Dr. Margo Horn, due to her devotion to investigating the overlap between American women’s history and the history of medicine. I would be honored to join her American Studies seminar “Madwomen: The History of Women and Mental Illness in the U.S.” so as to discuss the prevalent gender biases throughout the history of psychopathology with her and fellow peers. As I have investigated the sex-specific differences in expression of depression and anxiety candidate genes in mice and reviewed literature on the current gender disparities in mental health, I am interested in learning

Women are not connected to the Science and Math industry like males are, but does that mean that they are not in it? No. The majority of women in the United States are underappreciated and discouraged in the workforce because they are pressured into believing that they are not good enough. Throughout the years, women have overcome this sexism obstacle little by little, But nonetheless more and more obstacles form and replace other defeated obstacles. One of the obstacles that has formed and will possibly never get destroyed is women being overlooked or underrepresented in math and science careers. Pressure is a number one reason why girls/women decide to not take on a very difficult career path. Society has drilled into girls heads that they

areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics employers are not getting enough women (Pozniak). High school girls only represent 17 percent of computer science Advance Placement (AP) test takers (O'Shea). The most significant group of minorities who are behind in earning computer technology degrees and working in science and mathematical professions are women. “Historically, women’s low representation in science and engineering was said to be due in large part of their lack of ability, interest, or both” (Horning 30). However, this is no longer a true fact according to Ward. Some suggestions to increasing the amount of women in sciences include introducing already present women faculty as mentors. Over the last three decades,

There has been numerous studies conducted over the previous decades into how and why engineering and technology (E&T) industries have such a low representation of women. The topic has often reached top academic researchers who try to find the root-cause and hope to blur the gender lines. Studies have shown that the proportion of women to men in STEM fields is extremely low, despite receiving more help than their male counterparts. One article states, “Among the top 100 US universities, only 8.8-15.8% of tenure-track positions in many math-intensive fields (combined across ranks) are held by women, and female full professors number less than 10%” (SI Text, Si). Recent studies have also proven that women represent 16.4% of E&T in 2007/2008, which is significantly lower than the average across all subjects (57.1%). Although there has been positive strides, the ratio plateaus out at an unacceptable percentage. This is a problem of high importance that should be studied if society wants to move forward and evolve as a whole. Everyone deserves an equal opportunity to hold positions in all fields, regardless of gender.

Gender inequities in the fields of math and science are well researched and the results are shocking. Women compromise 45% of the work force, they hold jobs concentrated in clerical, service, and professional fields such as teaching and nursing, rather than in mathematics, science, or engineering (Levin & Matthews, 1997). Gender inequities start in