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Case Study on Mentoring Programs for Women in STEM
In 2023, SWE conducted a qualitative study to understand the various activities of mentoring programs for women in STEM academia across four higher education institutions in Austria and Germany.
- Tags: General Higher Education, SWE Research: Global, Germany
Gender Scan: STEM Global Survey
Launched in 2008, Gender Scan is a biennial survey that looks at issues affecting gender balance in STEM, from education to career.
- Tags: India, SWE Research: Global
Spain Engineering Workforce
Examining the labor data for women in engineering in Spain shows both progress and challenges. In terms of employment, women in engineering are making significant advances in various engineering fields.
- Tags: workforce, Spain
Spain Tertiary Education
According to OECD data, there is a considerable underrepresentation of women entering, enrolling in, and graduating from tertiary educational (bachelor, master, and doctoral) programs in engineering, manufacturing, and construction (EMC) programs and information and communication technologies (ICTs) in Spain.
Spain Primary and Secondary Academic Preparation
TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) and PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) scores are valuable tools for evaluating students' academic preparation. TIMSS is a global evaluation given every four years to students in the fourth and eighth grades to measure their understanding of mathematics and science concepts.
Global STEM Workforce
Over 120 national science academies and disciplinary associations from across the world participated in the surveys and reported on women’s science participation. The report found that women’s representation remained low from 2015 to 2020 across various countries in the world.
- Tags: International
India Tertiary Education
The number of women participating in STEM tertiary (bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral) programs in India has changed over the years. According to the All India Survey on Higher Education, the number of women enrolled in the sciences has increased from 2.6 million in 2016-2017 to 2.9 million in the 2020-2021 academic year.
Global Tertiary Education
Tertiary education encompasses the academic programs pursued after high school or secondary education. It includes a variety of programs and courses above the secondary, ranging from undergraduate to graduate study. It includes not just academic learning but also advanced vocational and professional education to cultivate specialized knowledge and skills.
- Tags: International
Germany Tertiary Education
According to data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, 2023), women make up a smaller proportion of students entering, enrolled in, and graduating from engineering, manufacturing, and construction (EMC) programs and information and communication technologies (ICTs)
- Tags: Germany
Germany Primary and Secondary Academic Preparation
Understanding students' academic preparation in math and science is critical to ensuring success in STEM subjects. This website examines the scores of two international examinations, the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA),
- Tags: Germany
Canada Faculty
For 12 years, from 2008 to 2020, the proportion of female Canadian faculty members has been below 20%, except for 2018 (20.8%). The percentage of full-time female-identifying faculty increased from 16.2% to 17.6%. In 2020, the highest proportion of...
- Tags: Canada
Canada Graduate Degrees
Since 2016, the enrollment of female students pursuing a master’s degree in engineering has been increasing over the years. However, in 2020 the amount decreased by almost 9% from the previous year to 26.7%. The proportion of master’s degrees awarded in engineering to females in 2020 was 25.5%, similar...
- Tags: Canada
Canada Undergraduate Degrees
The proportion of female to male students awarded undergraduate engineering degrees in Canada has been steadily increasing. In 2020, the total number of engineering degrees awarded totaled 18,185, with 22.8% of those degrees awarded to women. The total number...
- Tags: Canada
Canada Undergraduate Enrollment
Over the years, Canadian undergraduate enrollment of female students pursuing engineering degrees has steadily increased and has remained above 20% for the fifth year. As undergraduate enrollment increases, there has also been an increase in female-identifying students in engineering undergraduate programs. In 2020...
- Tags: Canada
United Kingdom High School Preparation
A report published by EngineeringUK found that while girls are well-represented in General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) courses (part of compulsory schooling), such as physics (50%) and mathematics (50%), the percentages of girls’ representation are lowest among entrants in GCSE computing and engineering courses, where they comprised 21% and 14% of students taking these courses in the 2020-2021 academic year.
- Tags: United Kingdom
United Kingdom Engineering Workforce
In the United Kingdom, women represented 15.2% of workers in core engineering roles across any sector. However, within the engineering sector, their representation is slightly lower (12.5%) compared to their representation (24.4%) outside the engineering sector.
- Tags: United Kingdom
United Kingdom Degree Attainment
While women's degree attainment in engineering and technology in the United Kingdom has increased over the last years, the proportion of engineering and technology degrees awarded to women has remained relatively stagnant at less than 20%.
- Tags: United Kingdom
United Kingdom Intentions to Major in Engineering
In the United Kingdom, a higher percentage of boys of all age groups than girls express positive views of engineering. Similarly, higher proportions of boys across all age groups report they would desire a career in engineering compared to girls.
- Tags: United Kingdom
Australia Degree Attainment
Overall, women’s representation of enrolled and completing engineering degree earners in Australia has increased from 2001 to 2018, across all degree levels, with one exception. While in 2001 women comprised close to 17% of those who completed bachelor’s degrees in engineering, their representation slightly decreased in 2018, where they comprise about 15% of bachelor’s degree holders.
- Tags: Australia
Australia Engineering Workforce
Women are severely underrepresented in the engineering workforce in Australia. Further, a trend in the persisting gender pay gap favoring males is seen in the median starting salaries among graduates from other fields.
- Tags: Australia
Australia High School Preparation
Participation in STEM subjects in Australia among year 12 students has been declining since 2001.
- Tags: Australia
India Faculty
The proportion of post-secondary faculty in India who were women in the 2019-20 academic year varied by the academic position held. Women were more well represented in the lower faculty ranks, such as assistant professors and lecturers in the 2018-19 and again in 2019-20 school years, where they represented about 42.6% and 42.9% of those faculty groups, respectively.
- Tags: India
Brazil Undergraduate Education
Overall, the number of students enrolled and graduating from undergraduate programs in Brazil has increased from 2017 to 2019.
- Tags: Brazil
Mexico STEM Workforce
Mexico STEM Workforce: Women comprise less than 20% of employed professionals in engineering in Mexico.
- Tags: Mexico
Mexico Degree Attainment
Higher Education in Engineering, Manufacturing, and Construction: According to the National Association of Universities and Institutions of Higher Education, the proportion of engineering, manufacturing, and construction students that were women seems to increase at each level of education.
- Tags: Mexico
South Africa Higher Education
In South Africa, women’s representation is close to parity across various educational levels in the fields of science, engineering, and technology (SET).
- Tags: South Africa
South Africa Engineering Professionals
In South Africa, only 1% of professional certificated engineers are women and 6% of professional engineers are women.
- Tags: South Africa
Singapore Research Scientists and Engineers
In the latest National Survey of Research and Development in Singapore (2018) published by the Agency for Science, Technology, and Research in Singapore, the gender representation of research scientists and engineers were provided for the span of ten years (2008-2018). Over this time, women’s representation among research scientists and engineers has slowly increased. Women represented 26% of research scientists and engineers in 2008, and in 2018, their representation among these STEM workers increased to 30%.
- Tags: Singapore
Singapore Higher Education
Each year the Ministry of Education in Singapore publishes a report titled Education Statistics Digest, which provides information on gender representation of students admitted, enrolled, and graduated from engineering and engineering sciences across various higher education institutions in Singapore. Across the years of 2016 to 2019, the percentage of female students admitted to engineering and engineering sciences hovers around 22%. Similarly, about 22% of students who graduate from these fields are women in this time period.
- Tags: Singapore
Malaysia Engineering Professionals
Data from the last three annual reports created by the Board of Engineers Malaysia show that the majority of registered engineers across various levels tend to concentrate around three specific engineering disciplines: civil, electrical, and mechanical engineering. However, the majority of registered professional engineers and professional engineers with practicing certifications (highest level) are in civil…
- Tags: Malaysia
Malaysia Higher Education
In 2017, the Department of Statistics in Malaysia published a report titled Statistics on Women Empowerment in Selected Domains, which provided information on student enrollment in engineering, manufacturing, and construction. The overall proportion of women enrolled in these fields was between 37% and 40% from 2014 to 2016. Women’s representation differs by the type of…
- Tags: Malaysia
Singapore Science and Engineering Career Expectations
Students were also surveyed in the 2018 PISA about their science and engineering career aspirations. While a higher proportion of male and female students from Singapore expect to have a science or engineering career by age 30 compared to the OECD average proportion of boys and girls, a gender difference is evident. Specifically, boys (26%) from Singapore are almost three times as likely to have these career expectations compared to girls (9%).
- Tags: Singapore
Singapore High School Preparation
The mathematics and science performance of 15-year-old students from Singapore was assessed in OECD’s 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) assessment. Both male and female students from Singapore, on average, outperformed their counterparts from OECD countries in both subjects. Yet, boys performed slightly better than girls on both math and science portions of the PISA.
- Tags: Singapore
Malaysia Science and Engineering Career Expectations
The 2018 PISA survey also included a portion where students were asked about their science and engineering career aspirations. A comparable proportion of both Malaysian boys and girls (18% and 6%, respectively) as the OECD average proportion of boys and girls (15% and 7%, respectively) expect to have a science or engineering career by age…
- Tags: Malaysia
Malaysia High School Preparation
Fifteen-year-old students from Malaysia participated in OECD’s 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) assessment. In both mathematics and science, Malaysian students’ average scores were lower than the average scores of students belonging to OECD countries. However, for both math and science portions of the PISA, Malaysian girls’ average scores were higher than that of…
- Tags: Malaysia
Mexico Science and Engineering Career Expectations
The 2018 PISA survey also included a portion where students were asked about their science and engineering career aspirations. A larger proportion of both Mexican boys and girls (30% and 10.7%, respectively) than the OECD average proportion of boys and girls (15.2% and 7.10%, respectively). Despite these promising career aspirations Mexican boys and girls have,…
- Tags: Mexico
Mexico High School Preparation
n OECD’s 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) assessment, 15-year-old students from Mexico participated. In both mathematics and science, Mexican students’ average scores were lower than the average scores of students belonging to OECD countries. For both math and science portions of the PISA, Mexican boys’ average scores were higher than that of their…
- Tags: Mexico
COVID-19 Research – India
In October 2020, SWE conducted a survey of engineers and engineering students in India to understand how the COVID-19 pandemic was impacting their college and career plans. We received over 300 responses. Below are highlights from our findings. Download the full report here. Impact of COVID-19 on College Students While most students indicated that they…
- Tags: SWE Research: Global, COVID-19
Brazil Scholarly Publications
Proportion and number of women researchers: In 2017, Elsevier analyzed the research output broken down by gender for different countries, including Brazil. The published report, Gender in the Global Research Landscape (2017) shows that overall, the number of researchers in Brazil has greatly increased from the period 1996-2000 to 2011-2015. Additionally, the proportion of women…
- Tags: Brazil
Brazil Science Career Expectations
Young adolescents from Brazil were surveyed about their science career expectations in the 2018 PISA survey, an international student assessment. For both boys and girls, a higher percentage of Brazilian students compared to the percentage of students from OECD countries have expectations to work as science and engineering professionals. Specifically, 10.2% of Brazilian girls compared…
- Tags: Brazil
Brazil High School Preparation
In the most recent OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) assessment conducted in 2018, 15-year-old students from Brazil participated. In both mathematics and science, Brazilian students’ average scores were lower than the average scores of students belonging to OECD countries. The average score of Brazilian boys was higher compared to the mean score of…
- Tags: Brazil
Global Career Expectations
Career expectations of boys and girls around the world show that gaps exist among young men and women on their plans to pursue a science or engineering career.
- Tags: International
China Graduate Education
Since 2009, the number of engineering doctoral degrees awarded in China has been steady and under 20,000. Among postgraduate master’s participants, women were well represented, comprising about 52.2% of students enrolled and 52.4% of degree holders. Trend in Engineering Doctoral Degrees Awarded, 2000-2014 In 2017, women were underrepresented among incoming doctoral students (41.9%) and doctoral…
- Tags: China
China Undergraduate Education
In 2014, China had the highest number of first university engineering degrees awarded with over 1.13 million. These engineering degrees represented about 33% of the total first university (bachelor’s or equivalent) degrees awarded in China. Trend in First University Engineering Degrees Awarded in China, 2000-2014 In the Education Statistics in 2017 published by the Ministry…
- Tags: China
China Career Expectations
In the most recent PISA assessment (OECD, 2017), 15-year-old students from Macao, Hong Kong, and B-S-J-G regions were surveyed about their science career expectations. B-S-J-G (China) refers to the four PISA-participating municipalities/provinces in China: Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Guangdong. In all of these three groups, a lower percentage of girls compared to boys have expectations…
- Tags: China
China High School Preparation
In the most recent OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) assessment conducted in 2015, 15-year-old students from two regions of China, Hong Kong and Macau, participated. In the mathematics portion, students’ average score from both regions was higher than the average score of students belonging to OECD countries. The average mathematics score of girls…
- Tags: China
An Examination of Bias in the Engineering Workplace in India
In partnership with the Center for WorkLife Law at the University of California, Hastings College of Law, SWE explored bias reported by engineers in India. Almost 700 engineers completed a customized online survey developed to identify the existence of bias patterns in the engineering workplace. The results suggest that both men and women engineers in…
- Tags: SWE Research: Global
Canada Intention to Pursue an Engineering Career
A survey conducted by Engineers Canada (2016) found that men are more definitive about their intention to pursue a career in engineering compared to women. The most recent data of the 2017 graduating cohort (Engineers Canada, 2017) shows that the majority of students will definitely pursue a career in engineering. When the same group of…
- Tags: Canada
Australia Income Equality
Income inequities exist in the engineering sector, with men earning much more than women. Almost 25% of male engineers earn at least $2,000 per week compared to only 10% of female engineers. Source: Engineers Australia. (2012). Women in engineering: A statistical update. Additional Resources Engineers Australia. (2012). Women in engineering: A statistical update. Data and…
- Tags: Australia
Australia School to University Transition
SCHOOL TO UNIVERSITY TRANSITION: A 2019 report from Engineers Australia found that women continue to be underrepresented in the engineering profession. Australian women have the capacity to study engineering, but they do not choose to enroll in university engineering programs. From 2013 to 2017, about 2,000 young women apply for places in university engineering courses…
- Tags: Australia
Global Secondary Academic Preparation
The OECD (2019a) found that on average, across countries that are members of OECD, boys’ mean score in math was higher than girls’ mean score by about five points. Yet, in science, girls’ mean score in science was slightly higher than boys’ mean score by two points.
- Tags: International