The importance of women in STEM
Dr. Catherine Hobbs, Head of Department: Engineering, Design and Maths
It’s not news that in many areas of science, technology, engineering and maths women are underrepresented. There are some areas where the gender difference is extreme — for example, women make up only 9% of professional engineers in the UK. Computer science also has a very low proportion of women, and although in some areas the proportions entering undergraduate courses is moving towards parity (for example, mathematics is currently around 40% female at undergraduate level in the UK), as you move up the academic path fewer and fewer women make it to the top of the academic tree.
So why does this matter? And even if we have reasons for wanting more people to go into STEM careers, is the lack of women in these areas just a feature of their genetic make-up?
I would argue that it does matter, that the evidence of genetic differentiation is weak and that we can and should increase the proportion of women in STEM if we want to be well prepared for what the future will bring.
STEM subjects are of key importance for the future of our world. While we sometimes see the increasing influence of technology on our lives as a problem, technology is also a source of vital solutions for the challenges of the world — energy, fighting disease, feeding the growing population and enabling people to lead independent lives into their old age. We certainly need people in STEM subjects, and the evidence is that we need more than we are currently training. This is particularly noted in engineering disciplines, where a number of recent reports have highlighted the skills gap the UK is facing over the next few years. Employers in other sectors, such as computing, are also calling for significantly more qualified employees.
If we look at this need for more STEM-qualified people alongside the lack of women in STEM, and given that women make up 50% of the population, an obvious solution is to increase the number of women in STEM.
A further argument for increasing the number of women in STEM is that in order to solve some of the wicked problems we are facing, we simply must have diversity of thinking in order to find solutions. We won’t solve these enormous challenges by continuing to bring the same set of skills and approaches to bear on them — we need people who will think about problems differently. I agree that men and women are, on the whole, different and come to situations with different priorities and ways of looking at a problem. This is exactly what we need, alongside other forms of diversity, to make break-throughs in science.
So this is why society needs women in STEM. What about women themselves — do they want careers in STEM? Here my argument is that the opportunities for interesting, fulfilling — and well-paid — jobs in STEM are huge. Everyone should have the opportunity to choose STEM if they have the ability to contribute in this area. Some will no doubt have other preferences, but as a society we should not be making these decisions for them. In the UK, and other similar societies, we have constructed STEM as a ‘masculine’ area (particularly mathematics and engineering), requiring skills we may believe are predominant in men rather than women. But this need not be the case. The scientific evidence for gender differences in abilities we consider necessary for STEM careers is weak. In some parts of the world a much higher proportion of women enter STEM careers than in the UK. For example, in China some 40% of engineers are female. I take much heart from this — it really demonstrates to me that ‘masculine science’ is a cultural construct, not down to genetics. In any case, the biases we hold eg about women preferring caring roles, not wanting jobs that involve getting our hands dirty have little bearing on the realities of STEM careers. By being clearer about the attributes and skills really required to succeed to develop technological solutions to the problems of the world we can start to change this, to engage more girls from an early age and to make progress on tackling the great challenges that face us as a society.
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