Academia and industry alike have long grappled with the lingering issue of gender equity in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines and professions.
The National Girls Collaborative Project’s 2023 “State of Girls and Women in STEM” report revealed much of the same. Women comprise 48% of the total workforce in the U.S. but only 34% of the STEM workforce; they also earn only 24% of bachelor’s degrees in engineering, 24% in physics, and 21% in computer science.
These inequities exist worldwide. Women make up only 29.4% of the STEM workforce in the U.K. and 28% in Australia. Across Europe, women account for more than half of the continent’s population but just 17% of its information and communications technology professionals.
What is behind this imbalance, and what can be done to reverse it? 
Ami Moyal
It is crucial to understand that gender inequity in STEM is driven more by perception than by reality.
Engineering was originally a male-dominated profession, likely due to the fact that fields such as electrical and mechanical engineering were perceived as “physical, dirty-hands” occupations. Further, for deep-rooted cultural reasons, women have been steered away from STEM careers under the false pretense that they are somehow innately less talented in those fields — a perception that is often planted in girls, whether subtly or overtly, from a very young age. Even though modern society has been trying to break down these perceptions, most engineers are still men, and consequently young women do not have sufficient female engineer role models.
Yet today, as is the case in many professions, the work associated with engineering occurs behind a computer. That, along with changing perceptions regarding gender stereotypes, is leading to a slow but steady increase in the number of female engineers.
