Toward Gender Equality in STEM Fields

by MIKI Yuna | 14 February 2025 | Education, Gender/sex, GNV News, Technology, World

GNV News 2/14/2025

On 2/11/2025, the International Day of Women and Girls in Science(IDWGS) marked its 10th anniversary. IDWGS is a United Nations event to review progress toward closing the gender gap in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and to discuss the challenges ahead .

Women’s share of the global STEM workforce was still only 26% in 2023. One reason is education. Worldwide, 122 million or more girls are out of school, and even women who have received an education often hesitate to choose science-related careers due to gender-based stereotypes. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) calculates a gender parity index in STEM education. This index has a maximum of 1, and the closer it is to 1, the closer it is to gender parity. Findings show that the parity index is lower in Europe and North America and higher in North Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. The tendency for countries with larger overall gender gaps to have smaller gender gaps in STEM education is called the STEM paradox. The STEM paradox is thought to occur because, in low-income countries, career choices prioritize considerations such as economic stability over individual passion .

Furthermore, even after obtaining jobs in STEM fields, gender disparities persist. According to a UNESCO report, one in 3 researchers worldwide is a woman, but women researchers tend to have shorter careers and lower pay, a trend. Women researchers are also more likely to be passed over for promotion and, in general, receive less research funding than their male colleagues.

Bridging the gender gap in STEM fields is believed to promote unbiased development in science and technology and to spur economic growth.

Learn more about education around the world → “Global education in the post-COVID world and its coverage”

Learn more about educational inequality → “Education for all children: What should education reporting look like?”