Is The Gender Gap in STEM Fields Due To Women’s Laziness and Unwillingness to Push Themselves?
Written by Oluwabukunmi Fadeyi
Twitter is the only social media platform where I’m very active, especially when it comes to conversations about gender equality. The thing with Twitter NG (Twitter Nigeria) is that we recycle topics and it can be so exhausting. One of the discussions we recycle is the gender gap in STEM fields.
Everyone knows that there’s a gap, so I guess that’s a good start. However, I can’t count how many times I’ve seen tweets blaming this gap on women’s laziness and unwillingness to stretch themselves further than they need to.
But is that true? Let’s find out.
STEM means Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. STEM fields refer to career paths related to the above. The world is changing, and STEM fields are taking centre stage. However, there are very few women in these fields and it’s appalling, to say the least.
Few women study courses related to these fields at university. I had a conversation with a friend who’s studying an Engineering course at the University of Lagos, and she informed me that there are 87 students in her class but only 10 of them are ladies. That’s a measly 11.49%! Another friend of mine who studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of Ibadan mentioned that there were 60 students in his class but only 6 were ladies. That’s just 10%.
There’s a myth that boys have bigger brains for mathematics and science-related courses but I doubt that’s true. I taught at a secondary school in 2019 and the boys didn’t floor the girls at maths or science; it was mostly a tie when you calculate it on an average. In some classes, the female students were better overall because they did better in English.
So what then is the cause of the under-representation of women in STEM fields? There are many reasons but, I will only explore 3 in this piece for brevity’s sake.
1. Gender Stereotypes
I spoke to a lot of people before writing this article because I studied an Arts Course (so I’m not exactly an “authority” on this). I also didn’t just want to rely on resources on the internet; I wanted real-life experiences.
One of the people I spoke to studied Computer Science Education but wanted to be a Computer Engineer. I asked her why she studied Education instead of Engineering as she wanted. She said the day she told her parents the course she wanted, they called an emergency family meeting. Everyone in her family made an argument classifying engineering as a masculine field. They told her that teaching is more feminine, demure, and won’t stand in her way of marriage.
People see STEM fields as masculine and discourage girls from pursuing careers there. In the US, women make up nearly half of the workforce but only a meagre 27% are STEM workers. It’s why such terms as “female engineer”, “female scientist”, “female doctor” exist. They see the women in these fields as unicorns in a traditionally male setting and that’s probably why they feel they must mention their gender first, before their profession.
2. Fewer Role Models
Everyone knows that the more you see people like you in a place, the more comfortable you’ll feel and the more inspired you’ll be to pursue your interests there. That is why inclusivity is so crucial.
In STEM fields, there aren’t enough female role models to inspire girls to pursue careers in those fields. In a study, researchers asked people in STEM to recommend a current female role model and only one out of ten mentioned a woman.
There are so few examples of female scientists, inventors, and engineers in the media for girls to look up to and, there are even fewer for black girls. That’s why I enjoyed watching Hidden Figures; that was such an important story.
3. Misogyny in STEM Spaces
Traditionally, society sees STEM fields as masculine, that’s why it’s so male-dominated. Because of this, it’s more or less a “boy’s club” and the thing about boys’ clubs is that they can be wildly misogynistic.
A friend who works in a tech space is always complaining about the misogyny she has to endure at work as the only woman there. Her ideas are discarded even before they’re considered, they talk above her and she once overheard the cofounders discussing how she was employed because the “boys” needed a pretty face to look at every day.
I saw a tweet recently where a lady called out a tech founder for hiring female employees solely to have sexual relations with them and firing anyone who rejected his advances.
Remember my friend who’s studying an Engineering course whom I mentioned earlier? She said students and lecturers call their only female lecturer the “mummy” of the department. Lol…what even is that? She also said some companies specifically avoid accepting female engineering students as interns.
My engineer friend went to a site to sort out the problem they were facing. The people at the site asked her “why did they send a female engineer? Have all the male engineers died that they had no other choice but to send you?” Needless to say, I was livid but, she told me to calm down as that is the treatment she has to constantly endure. Imagine having to navigate a space fraught with so much misogyny? *Shudders*
As you can see, the Twitter agenda that women don’t go into STEM fields because they’re too lazy or unwilling to stretch themselves further than they need to is far from the truth.
How do we bridge the gender gap in STEM fields?
- Abolish gender stereotypes, expectations, and biases. I am begging everyone from the depths of my soul, please. Biologically, men are physically stronger than women and it may give them an edge in some fields. However, the majority of STEM fields are excluded because all you need to succeed is intelligence and intelligence is not gender-biased.
- Parents, teachers, and everyone in society need to understand that girls and women are as intellectually capable as boys and men. There is no prescription for how each gender should be, so we should build an environment that doesn’t place any expectations or promote stereotypes and biases about any gender. More emphasis should be placed on women, especially black women, in STEM fields in books and the media. When young black girls see women who look like them succeeding in these fields, they’ll be inspired to study STEM courses in university.
- Women in these fields should stop adapting to the status quo of STEM spaces being boys’ clubs. To avoid being targeted, some women in these spaces promptly become one of the boys and join in the weird misogynistic banter that they direct at other women. That should not be the case because it makes STEM spaces unsafe for more women to come into and succeed. As a woman, you’re in the minority in these spaces and, you may not have asked for the added responsibility, but you must help create a space that would be safer and easier for more women.
I like that the problem of the gender gap in STEM has been identified and it’s a mainstream discussion; that’s a good start. I hope that we’ll all do our best from our little corners to bridge this gap, as I look forward to a society where gender gaps like the one we have in STEM fields become a thing of the past.
Bukunmi is a voracious reader who thoroughly enjoys helping people and that’s why she has a yearly charity outreach for the less privileged in Ibadan. When she’s not busy dismantling the patriarchy, she’s probably curled up and watching a sappy movie on Netflix. You can connect with Bukunmi on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Edited by Chizulu E. Uwolloh
Zulu, named after Zulu Shofola, is a writer, avid movie watcher, and self-proclaimed bibliophile. She is proud to call herself a feminist and when she’s not editing for Sisterly HQ and watching travel vlogs on YouTube, she’s trying to save the world in her own little way. Connect with Zulu on Instagram and LinkedIn
