Get the Facts: Female Students in Math and Science

Get the Facts: Female Students in Math and Science

Different rates of participation among men and women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines at U.S. colleges and universities are not a problem as long as they reflect individuals' talents and interests and are not merely caused by discrimination.  Innate differences in aptitudes, temperament, and interests likely contribute to greater numbers of men pursuing STEM disciplines than women.  To the extent that sex discrimination does still exist in STEM disciplines, it should be remedied by institutions.  However, attempting to achieve a politically correct gender balance in STEM disciplines that ignores students' preferences could leave students and these disciplines worse off.

Women's Participation in STEM Disciplines:

• In 1970 women accounted for just 42% of undergraduate students compared to 56% in 2005.  Women not only earn the majority of all Bachelor's degrees, but receive 59% of conferred Master's degrees and nearly half (47%) of all doctoral degrees.
  
• Despite these impressive gains, women are still a minority of students in STEM disciplines.  For example, women earn just 28% of computer science degrees and 20% of engineering degrees.  However, women have made considerable progress in these areas.  The number of doctoral degrees awarded to women in computer science grew from 2% in 1970 to 18% 2001 and 1% to 18% in engineering.

Possible Causes of Different Rates of Participation Include:

• Innate differences in aptitude: Scientists have documented a wide range of structural, chemical, hormonal, and functional brain differences between men and women. 
  
  • In many cases men and women are capable of completing the same tasks or solving the same problems, but use different brain circuits to do so. 
    
  • Structural differences between male and female brains can influence aptitude for certain tasks. For example, studies suggest that men have an advantage in engineering and science tasks that rely on complex 3-D images because they use different parts of their brains than women do for spatial understanding.  Likewise, women have an advantage in solving mathematical problems in a verbal format because of more highly developed language centers in their brains.
    
• Innate differences in temperament and personality:
  
  • Males score higher on most measures of direct competitiveness and have a greater preference for physical and nonphysical risks while females exhibit more nurturing behavior both inside and outside the family.
    
  • These temperamental differences are reflected in occupational affinities as measured by Strong Interest Inventory and the Self-Directed Search which assess occupationally relevant aspects of personality.
    
• Innate differences in interests:
  
  • The presence of estrogen and other hormones in females causes a desire for communication and connection while males are more often content with solitary work.  Women's greater interest in communication and emotions could be one reason they gravitate towards disciplines that offer greater social interaction-like humanities rather STEM subjects.

The general differences discussed for men and women are not meant to predict the abilities of individuals, but do suggest that sex discrimination is not solely responsible for differing rates of participation among men and women in STEM disciplines.

All information taken from Studying Women in Science, a publication by the Independent Women's Forum, available at iwf.org