Good news on the gender equality front. It seems that the loss of promising female scientists is no longer outpacing that of bright young male researchers. The data indicates that the gap that existed since the 1970s—when men with undergraduate degrees in science were about 1.7 times more likely than similarly qualified women to go on to get higher academic qualifications in those fields—has closed.
This claim is based on a paper published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology. The research is titled “The bachelor’s to Ph.D. STEM pipeline no longer leaks more women than men: a 30-year analysis.”
However, is this good news all that it is cracked up to be? The trend appears simply to be a function of the fact that fewer men are going on to earn qualifications in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.
Commenting on this more complex finding, lead author Sue Rosser told the education website Inside Higher Ed: “The major finding of the study is the ‘leakage’ or loss of men. It’s not so much that women are leaking less; in fact, it’s pretty constant. It’s just that the [number of] men receiving STEM Ph.D.s [has] decreased.”
Furthermore, while the authors note that though the gender gap in young scientists going on to get qualifications may have closed, there are still several gender-based issues at play in STEM fields. The number of women in assistant professor positions, for example, has recently dropped.
Study coauthor David Miller, a doctoral student in psychology at Northwestern University, told Inside Higher Ed that the findings should not be used to discourage programs at several universities that steer promising women to advanced degrees and careers in science and technology. Those programs, he said, are making real progress in encouraging women who may have otherwise left STEM.
