OECD panel on women in STEM highlights educational challenges

During a recent panel on educational policies that could advance women in STEM careers, representatives from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) painted an unfortunate picture: Since 2005, the number of women in STEM hasn’t actually increased all that much.

While OECD data indicates that more women globally are attending university, the percentage of women in fields like engineering hardly budged between 2005 and 2020. And in IT, the number of women actually decreased during that time.

“The trend is less girls going into technologies,” Marta Encinas-Martin, OECD education gender ambassador, said. “And we don’t think the trend is going to change,” she added, pointing to career expectation data from the OECD’s Program for International Student Assessment. At age 15, the top careers that girls say they want to pursue are doctors, teachers, nurses, psychologists, and veterinarians. Just 3% say they want to go into IT, Encinas-Martin said.

The panel also focused on the field of nuclear science, which is unique because of the immense amount of government funding and oversight it receives globally, Fiona Rayment, chief science and technology officer at the UK’s National Nuclear Laboratory, explained.

Rayment pointed to OECD recommendations adopted this month to improve the gender balance in the nuclear sector. They include creating public communications campaigns and education initiatives, and addressing issues that may make it more challenging for women to take on roles in nuclear science, such as by offering remote work, better parental leave policies, and childcare.

And as to where in the education system girls should be introduced to nuclear science? “The answer is at all levels,” Rayment said, recommending engagement in primary and secondary schools as well as at the university level. “At the end of the day, if we don’t sort the STEM pipeline out, we’ll never get the right people into nuclear.”

Encinas-Martin agreed, pointing to a need to revisit existing education programs aimed at encouraging girls to go into STEM fields.

The education gap in STEM fields early on isn’t significant, but girls still tend to choose non-STEM careers, she explained. By the time girls are 15 or 16, it’s “too late.”

That’s in part because stereotypes surrounding careers “for” men and women start forming much earlier, Encinas-Martin said. “You cannot be where you cannot see…stereotypes start forming around the age of five or earlier, even,” she explained.

“We need to also see how the programs that are actually targeting girls are developed,” she said. “We usually go to the schools, talk to girls, we think we are doing good, we leave. It doesn’t look like this is…working to influence them.”