Rompiendo la brecha de género¿Qué factores condicionan a los estudiantes a seleccionar estudios de disciplinas STEM y no-STEM?

Laburpena

According to the report “Igualdad en cifras 2022”, around 56% of undergraduate students at Spanish universities are women. However, the presence of women varies greatly depending on the field of knowledge. While there is a significantly higher percentage of women (>62%) enrolled in Health Sciences and Social Sciences related fields, in STEM disciplines (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) women are underrepresented (<49% and <29.1%) in sciences and engineering disciplines respectively) (MEFP, 2022). The market labor of STEM disciplines is characterized by high employability and low unemployment rates. Moreover, they represent an employment sector with high career development (Maphosa, 2022). This existing gender gap is limiting women’s professional and personal development (Verdugo-Castro, 2022). Here, we analyze the factors that lead women to choose or discard STEM related studies and to assess whether gender stereotypes influence these choices. This work has been funded by the “Instituto de la Mujer” (ref:48-13-ID22). A total of 367 undergraduate students from Social Sciences (43%), Health Sciences (28%) and STEM disciplines (29%) participated in this study. Seventy-five percent of the participants were women. The presence of women in STEM disciplines was significantly lower (p-value<0.001). Most participants indicated that the most determinant factor was their vocation (70%) followed by the influence of academic and/or familiar environment (49%). No statistically significant differences between the different fields of knowledge were found (p-value>0.05). The majority of the students (79%) considered that gender did not influence the skillset required for some disciplines or others (e.g. women have more caring qualities while men more technical skills). However, they considered that gender influences the choice of studies and the personal approach received during the studies (59% and 70% of the participants respectively)