8M: Gender Gaps in STEM

In November 2023, academics from the Millennium Nucleus on Inequalities and Opportunities (NUDOS), the Millennium Nucleus for the Study of Labor Market Mismatch (Lm2c2) and the FAIR Millennium Nucleus met to discuss gender gaps in STEM. With evidence-based data, the researchers analyzed this current problem in the scientific area.

CTIM careers, better known as STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), are professions related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

According to the latest Report on Gender Gaps in Higher Education of the Undersecretary of Higher Education, 19% of the first year enrollment in STEM careers is represented by women.

This under-representation of women in STEM careers, as pointed out by the alternate director of the Millennium Nucleus for the Study of Labor Market Mismatch (Lm2c2), Paola Bordón, seems to have different origins. The economist argues that the reasons range from segregation itself and gender stereotypes, to self-confidence, risk aversion and disparate economic incentives.

From the FAIR Millennium Nucleus, Mónica Humeres emphasized that the problem is multifactorial and stated that “the conception of gender roles is embedded in technology and also gives us messages and a script, which basically shapes our behavior”.

According to data from the Third Gender Radiography prepared by the Ministry of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation, men concentrate the highest percentage of enrollment in all academic degrees in STEM careers: 79% in undergraduate, 70% in master’s and 64% in doctorate (2022).

Andrea Canales, sociologist at the Catholic University and principal investigator of the Millennium Nucleus Lm2c2, pointed out that, in general, “women report less self-evaluation of their quantitative abilities or skills than men, in other words, men tend to be more confident in their mathematical abilities than women”.

The panorama remains the same when it comes to the scientific-technological production of women researchers: between 2008 and 2022, “only 35% of the people with publications in indexed journals: i) WoS, ii) Scopus and iii) SciELO correspond to women“, according to the Third Gender Radiography of the MinCiencia.

For this reason, the Government promoted the campaign “More Women Scientists” in 2023, a policy to reduce gender gaps in STEM careers. In parallel, the MinCiencia launched a communication campaign to highlight the work of female researchers across the country and Macarena Bonhomme, a young researcher at NUDOS, was one of those highlighted.

“The idea of having references is key, it has been seen that it is very important when it comes to normalizing and making visible the work that women can do in this type of spaces that historically we have understood to be of a masculine nature”, concludes the director of the NUDOS Millennium Nucleus, Ingrid Bachmann.