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) in Germany. This occurs across all three categories of tertiary education (bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral). Compared to other STEM fields, only 18.6 percent of new students interested in pursuing bachelor’s degrees in engineering, manufacturing, or construction were women in 2020. In contrast, the percentage of women who were interested in pursuing a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences was significantly higher than the percentage of men.
Enrollment and Graduates in EMC and ICT tertiary programs
The number of undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in EMC and ICT programs has varied slightly over the years. For instance, the number of women pursuing a bachelor’s degree in ICTs and EMC increased by one percent between 2016 and 2020. In 2020, however, slightly fewer women enrolled in doctoral programs in these fields than in 2016.
Between the years 2016 and 2020, there was an increase in the number of bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees that were awarded in the fields of engineering, manufacturing, and construction, as well as information and communication technologies. In 2020, 20.8 percent of bachelor’s degrees were awarded to women in ICT programs and 17.8 percent in EMC programs. In 2020, women earned 23 percent of ICT master’s degrees and 26.4 percent of EMC master’s degrees. This is the highest proportion of degrees awarded to women in these two fields.
Additional Resources
- OECD (2022), Education at a Glance 2022: OECD Indicators, OECD Publishing, Paris.
