Women have been making crucial contributions to the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics since long before STEM was an educational buzzword. Women wrote the first computer algorithm and the first programming language to use English words. They were the first to propose that stars are made of hydrogen and helium and the first to reveal dark matter. Women have invented everything from the first home security systems to the first windshield wipers.
The benefits of female participation in STEM disciplines are common-sensical. Research has shown that underrepresented minorities, including women, are more likely to introduce innovative concepts — albeit fewer accepted concepts compared to those of white men. Nonetheless, the percentage of women STEM faculty remains disproportionately small.
This lack of representation has long been blamed as a pipeline problem — that there are fewer women receiving STEM PhDs and therefore fewer candidates to teach. But as time has passed, that excuse has rung less true. Over the past 10 to 15 years, women have been closing the gap at an increasing speed. Women now receive around 40% of STEM PhDs — far from parity but a definite improvement. Yet, only 28% of STEM full and associate professors are women.
The reasons for this are complex and interrelated. Several facts stand out. Most importantly, women in STEM often earn less than their male counterparts. Although women publish less than men, they do more of the sort of necessary work that isn’t respected by promotion boards, like mentoring and service activities. Additionally, the tenure process can be inflexible, ignoring women’s’ often heftier care-giving obligations. Even accounting for differences in education, career attainment, family responsibilities, or work effort, men in STEM are given more chances to advance and to receive awards. When they are part of a team, women are less likely to be credited as authors, regardless of their actual contributions, and their work is less likely to be cited. And on top of everything else, women in STEM face feelings of isolation and hostility, replete with microaggressions and the invalidation of their ideas.
Beyond unfair conditions for women in STEM, the consequences for society are serious. The sexism that fuels the disparities has a pernicious way of feeding on itself. A study published in Personnel Psychology found that in fields with few women, researchers were more likely to agree with the statement “men are often more suited than women to do high-level work in [my discipline].” There may be a loss in critical innovations that women could be making in the present, which damages prospects for developing more female STEM students in the future — as the saying goes, “you can’t be what you can’t see.”
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