Gender inequality in technological studies continues to be overwhelming despite the efforts of administrations and institutions to combat it. Equality and promotion policies and campaigns of vocational training centers (FP) and universities. Thousands of scientists and technologists are involved in mentoring courses year after year and go to schools to explain to girls what they do, how much they like it, and thus expand their feminine references.
However, women continue to be a minority in the studies of almost all technological families, families that lead to jobs with greater potential for growth in the future and better remuneration. In most STEM degrees (science, technology, engineering or mathematics) the proportion of men and women is practically 9 to 1 if the health branch where they are the majority is eliminated.
On the occasion of the celebration of International Women's Day, March 8, several studies have been published that photograph the situation. One of them is the study by CaixaBank Dualiza and Orkestra-Basque Institute of Competitiveness focused on vocational training and which indicates that only 12.3% of people who graduate in STEM cycles are women.
Of the eleven vocational training families in these fields, only four are not masculinized (food industries, chemistry, image and sound, and building and civil works). This does not mean that the number of male and female students is comparable, but rather that there are at least 30% girls in each classroom.
In addition to being a minority in VET centers related to the technological field (building and civil works, electricity and electronics, energy and water, mechanical manufacturing, food industries, extractive industries, computing and communications, installation and maintenance, chemistry and transportation and maintenance of vehicles), they earn less and have fewer permanent contracts, according to the study indicated.
An example of how companies consider that they are likely to receive a lower salary compared to their male colleagues is in occupations linked to the chemical industry. The average salary of boys reaches 26,300 euros in the fourth year of tenure in the middle grade. Theirs is 21,700 euros. And at a higher level, the salary for men is 30,800 euros compared to 26,600 for women.
At the university, the issue is no better if, as has been pointed out, careers linked to health are eliminated. A study by Esade Women in STEM: from basic education to career analyzes all the data from the studies on the journey of girls throughout their school career, their performance in STEM subjects and the choices they make when finishing school. Obligatory education.
“The data in early stages already anticipate what will happen in the working career,” explains Lucía Cobreros, author of the EsadeEcPol study, together with Jorge Galindo and Teresa Raigada.
You have to go back to early childhood. Before turning five, girls believe that they are more talented than boys and they, in turn, see themselves as better than them. But, according to research published in the journal Science in 2017, girls begin to point out them as brighter from that age onwards.
What happens 5 years later? “When they turn 10, girls are 15% less likely than boys to consider mathematics their favorite subject and 8% less likely to consider themselves good, learn quickly or enjoy it. On the contrary, they respond that mathematics is boring and difficult,” explains the researcher.
Let's add 5 more years. They already have 15. “If we continue analyzing the data from the reports, in this case the latest PISA 2022, we see that they feel much more nervous or hopeless than them when solving a problem, with a difference of 20 points, and these figures are worse than those registered a decade ago,” he continues.
Low self-perception and anxiety about the subject of mathematics lead, among other factors, to poorer performance and rejecting technological studies as a possible option at older ages. The presence in the scientific-technological branch in high school is lower despite the fact that they are more applied and manage to complete their studies with more success.
In selectivity, girls choose fewer subjects such as physics (2.65% less) or technical drawing (2.13%) despite the fact that their grades are slightly higher than those of their classmates.
We enter the university. Those girls enrolled in university degrees with STEM knowledge do not reach 50% of the classroom in almost no cases. In mathematics, the group of women is 36%, physics (27%), telecommunications engineering (23%) or, the most extreme case, computer engineering (13%).
“The most discouraging thing is that this was not always the case, we had been better, and there has been a decline in the number of female students,” reveals the researcher.
In 1990, there were as many boys as girls in mathematics classrooms and now they are 36%. There were 6,257 registered in total and in 2020 they barely exceeded 4,800. The same thing happens in physics. There were 5,074 compared to 3,171 four years ago. In computing they reached their peak in the year 2000 with 16,900 girls. Some 20 years later they do not reach 5,000. However, it should be noted that the offer of university studies has diversified greatly in this time and, therefore, also the possibility of choosing other careers linked to engineering.
What is their situation once they graduate? EsadeEcPol has developed an indicator on the real presence of women in the labor market in technological occupations. Thus, there are 5.5% of women employed in this field (with a growth of two points compared to 2011). Regarding men, 13% hold a technological position.
In this indicator there is a green shoot: 9% of employed women under 30 years of age do so in a technology job.
As was the case in vocational training, the fact of having studied a science or technology degree does not imply working in that field, which occurs more frequently in the case of women than in men. “Our analysis indicates that women who have a STEM degree are, five years later, less likely to work in a technological occupation than their male counterparts,” explains Cobreros. Also, as in the case of FP, their gender penalizes them when it comes to working: they earn less for equal positions.
The Esade study proposes ideas, some of which are already contemplated, such as incorporating the gender perspective in science subjects or training teachers. also to teach the subjects minimizing biases. Offer contact opportunities with girls (summer workshops, extracurricular activities, bootcamps, mentoring, etc.) and greater professional guidance. And reinforce the role of families, promoting their participation in the learning process.
Meanwhile, vocational training centers, such as the Escola del Treball with its EdtWomenDays program, a pioneer in Spain, tries to attract female talent to technological studies. Andrea Jorge, the only student in the higher degree cycle of mechanical manufacturing, has been enthusiastically involved in the workshops that the center promotes for primary and secondary school students. "It's just that if they knew him... it's so interesting to study this." She explains to Inés, from 1st year of ESO, how to program a 3D printer to make keychains and tells her that as soon as the cycle is over, she will still help her boyfriend, a pastry chef, to create chocolates and reproduce them on the printer. .
