Women continue to be massively underrepresented across fields in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). A damning new report from UNESCO and the G20 confirms this reality, showing that even with increased awareness of the disparity and drives for change, the situation has only improved very slightly since 2005, when 19 percent of STEM jobs in G20 countries were held by women. Today, the figure is 22 percent. 

“In the G20 countries, the proportion of women working in science, technology, engineering and mathematics is plateauing at 22 percent. This situation undermines our collective ability to innovate and respond to the pressing challenges of our time, such as climate change and digital transformation,” said UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay in a statement.

“At Brazil’s instigation, UNESCO has produced a report highlighting this situation and recommending a series of actions to finally move towards gender equality.”

The report, entitled Changing the Equation, not only outlines the scale of the problem but offers a number of suggested actions that countries could take to try and improve the picture. 

Gender biases in STEM exist at all levels but become particularly acute as people progress through their careers. Only 10 percent of Nobel Prize recipients in the Natural Sciences since 2011 have been women. 

Many and varied factors contribute to this, which the report’s authors divide into five broad categories: individuals, family and peers, school, work, and society. 

An example of an individual factor might be someone’s self-belief about their ability to pursue a career in STEM; for some women and girls, this could be fed by society-level factors like cultural norms around gender. At the level of families, parental beliefs and household income may come into play; at school, a lack of equipment and materials for engaging STEM learning could be one of many barriers. 

Prior research has shown that women and people of color are “woefully underrepresented” in science textbooks. As children’s rights campaigner Marian Wright Edelman wrote, “It’s hard to be what you can’t see.”

This all culminates in women making up just 35 percent of STEM university graduates across the G20, despite better overall academic achievement compared with their male counterparts. Some fields fare worse than others, with just 26 percent of graduates in engineering, manufacturing, and construction being women. 

For women who do end up in a STEM-focused career, there are then workplace issues to contend with, such as a lack of flexibility or support with childcare. There’s also the evergreen question of unequal pay – one of the top-level statistics highlighted in the report shows that in the 10 countries for which data were available, women earned at most 88 percent of the salaries earned by men in STEM. In four countries, it was less than 75 percent. 

Women also face gender-based discrimination throughout their journeys studying and working in STEM. According to the data, over 40 percent of women studying a STEM subject report experiencing sexism. 

Perpetuating this inequity is doing us no favors at all, the authors say: “By missing out on half of the world’s potential, all of society suffers because its ability to address challenges and take advantage of innovations is undermined.”

So, what can be done? The report offers numerous suggestions for actions countries should take, in service of three major priorities:

• Dismantling gender stereotypes and biases in science;
• Opening educational pathways for girls in science; and
• Creating workplace environments that attract, retain, and advance women scientists.

There are no quick fixes – as the somewhat disappointing progress over the past 15 years demonstrates – but the message of the report is clear: “To close the gender gap, STEM studies and careers must be made possible and worthwhile, as a competitive choice for girls and women.”

The complete report is available here.