Category: Females in STEM

 

 

Donna Strickland

Received the Nobel Prize in Physics (2018) for “her groundbreaking invention in the field of laser physics.”

 

Frances H. Arnold 

Received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2018) for “the directed evolution of enzymes.”

 

Tu Youyou

Received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (2015) for “her discoveries concerning a novel therapy against Malaria.”

 

Click here for a full list of Nobel Prize awarded women.

A 2009 article by the U.S. Department of Commerce entitled Women in STEM: A Gender Gap to Innovation address the importance of the STEM workforce to America’s global competitiveness and women’s vast under-representation in STEM jobs. Their study found:

• “Although women fill close to half of all jobs in the U.S. economy, they hold less than 25 percent of STEM jobs. This has been the case throughout the past decade, even as college educated women have increased their share of the overall workforce.
• Women with STEM jobs earned 33 percent more than comparable women in non-STEM jobs – considerably higher than the STEM premium for men. As a result, the gender wage gap is smaller in STEM jobs than in non-STEM jobs.
• Women hold a disproportionately low share of STEM undergraduate degrees, particularly in engineering.
• Women with a STEM degree are less likely than their male counterparts to work in a STEM occupation; they are more likely to work in education or healthcare.
• There are many possible factors contributing to the discrepancy of women and men in STEM jobs, including: a lack of female role models, gender stereotyping, and less family-friendly flexibility in the STEM fields. Regardless of the causes, the findings of this report provide evidence of a need to encourage and support women in STEM.”

Below is a figure to reflect a portion of their study:

 

A study done by the National Girls Collaborative Project goes over the state of girls and women in STEM today by analyzing them in different groups: K-12 education, higher education, and STEM workforce:

K-12 EDUCATION:

HIGHER EDUCATION:

STEM WORKFORCE: