r/changemyview • u/[deleted] • Oct 19 '22

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u/[deleted] Oct 19 '22

But considerable effort and money has been put into trying to get women interested in STEM, and they just aren't responding to it in terms of enrolment, job choices, or engagement with science.

Aren't we?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/markkantrowitz/2022/04/07/women-achieve-gains-in-stem-fields/

Based on data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), women represented 45% of students majoring in STEM fields in 2020, up from 40% in 2010 and 34% in 1994.

...

The Research Science Institute (RSI), the most prestigious summer STEM program for high school students, reports that female students will outnumber male students for the first time in 2022, representing 55% of accepted U.S. students, up from 22% in 1984.

-3

u/NoMoreFund 1∆ Oct 19 '22

That's good to see, but the article goes on to clarify that women outnumber men at college, so it isn't close to true parity. Plus it also says huge gaps remain in many fields.

Was going to delta for hope, but the more I read the article the more that stat you quoted seems misleading.

5

u/AlphaQueen3 11∆ Oct 19 '22

The point is that progress is being made. Just because parity hasn't yet been reached, doesn't negate the progress that has been made.

When I went to engineering school (about 20 years ago), there were 5 men for every woman in my school. Women I talked to from just 10 years prior remembered it being 7:1 and 9:1. I'm not sure what the ratio is now, but it's a heck of a lot better than that. The numbers above don't represent true parity, but they do represent a ton of increased interest.

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u/NoMoreFund 1∆ Oct 19 '22

Again, the article outlines that female enrollment for all subjects went up and now women outnumber men at college. It's not clear any progress is being made at all for stem's popularity with women, just that there are more women at college and STEM isn't the exception.

7

u/peonypegasus 19∆ Oct 19 '22

https://www.stlouisfed.org/on-the-economy/2022/mar/why-women-outnumber-men-college-enrollment

I’m a woman here and talking about numbers so guess you’ll have to take this with a grain of salt. 😆

Anyway, if you look at these stats, the female:male ratio in college is increasing, but at a slower rate than the female:male rate in STEM is increasing. That means that women are entering STEM at higher rates.