Sketching out her design, she reaches for a ruler, making sure to be as precise as possible. As the lines come together, an image is formed. It may look like a simple building, but it is actually much more, it is a design for a base on the moon.

Whether designing livable bases for the moon, or working on low orbit satellites that are now in space, senior Zeynep Ozgun has been preparing to be an aerospace engineer throughout her time in high school. She is just one of many women looking to pursue a career in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine (STEMM).

“I did an internship two summers ago, and the person in charge was a woman, and I worked under her,” Ozgun said. “It was so cool being able to see such a powerful woman, and honestly that’s kind of what solidified what I wanted to do with my life. Along with that, there’s a lot of girls that participate in the NASA program that I participated in, which makes me really happy. STEMM is a male dominated field, so it’s really nice that younger girls are finally starting to see they have a space in this industry.”

GROWING FEMALE PRESENCE

According to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) there has been significant growth in the percentage of women in STEMM fields since 1970, having grown from 7% to 26%. However, since 2000 the growth of women in STEMM has remained more stagnant with a growth of only 1%, remaining unchanged since 2010.

“Some of the stats I’ve seen show that there are more women in STEMM fields than there used to be, but specifically in engineering, women are still underrepresented,” Water Treatment Plant Operations Manager at Austin Water Stephanie Sue said. “This still likely has something to do with gender stereotypes where females are discouraged from pursuing STEMM or engineering fields.”

The growth across and current percentage of women in different STEMM fields is not even. According to the DOL, women make up 61% of social science occupations, 44% of mathematical occupations, and 45% of physical science occupations, while they only make up 24% of computer occupations, and 16% of engineering occupations.

“In my practicum class there’s a lot more girls than guys, but in anatomy and biology, it was pretty mixed,” senior Sarah Anderson said. “From what I’ve heard guys tend to focus more on engineering and physics, but I’m not sure why. I think it may be just because they see healthcare as being female dominated.”

Recent proposals by the U.S. Department of Education to change the classification of professional degrees may harm fields currently dominated by women. According to National Nurses United, by removing something from the list of professional degrees, the amount of federal student loans a person can receive for their degree under the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” would be cut in half. Therefore by declassifying degrees in female dominated fields like nursing, those pursuing those careers would no longer be able to receive as much in federal student loans.

“It’s going to exacerbate the nursing shortage because less people will be able to afford to go to school for it,” senior CJ Pelt said. “It’s an insult to the profession, I mean nursing is not like getting an English or even an engineering degree, I would say nursing school is more akin to trade school than college in some aspects. With nursing being a female dominated field it’s just one of the many other ways the Trump administration has shown us how much they hate women.”

SEXIST SETBACKS

One global factor which can draw women away from STEMM fields is sexism. According to The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), sexist attitudes which uphold traditional gender roles, and behaviors which trivialize female abilities or intellect can affect women’s confidence and educational outcomes.

“There used to be this underlying assumption that women were just not cut out to be scientists or mathematicians or physicists, and it’s one of those cul

tural things that has been so difficult to overcome, because females really take themselves out of the equation, because they’re female,” AP Physics and Engineering Design and Problem Solving teacher Janet Gummerman said. “They just don’t have the confidence in a room full of boys to be the one that says, ‘No, we’re going to do it this way.’ They step out of things and let other people take over, because boys tend to be more assertive and more domineering.”

According to the NCBI, while there has been improvement over time, implicit gender-science stereotypes still exist today across ages, genders, and nations. These stereotypes which stemmed from ideas of women being less intelligent, weak, and emotional have persisted in biases which are still held by people today, influencing both hiring and compensation for modern female workers.

“My freshman year at UT I was in physics, and I had a C in the class, but when I got my report card, I had a D,” Gummerman said. “I went in to talk to my professor, and he said, ‘Oh, you don’t know? You’re a girl.’ I said, Well, I know I’m a girl, and he said, ‘You must score at least 10 points higher on stuff than boys to get the same grade.’ So, I ended up with a D in the course. I was a little 18 year old kid, and that was the culture I was in. I was stunned, because I’d never really felt that way in high school, and my parents had never alluded to anything like that. I was also told by my advisor that I had to take three semesters of calculus instead of two because I’m a girl. That was the stigma.”

CHALLENGES FACED IN THE FIELD

According to the European Center for Women and Technology, on average women in STEMM make around 4% less than the typical man in STEMM. While this can be as simple as being paid less, according to the Women in Stem Network, the pay gap may be much more complex. Women can be offered lower starting salaries which affects their pay over the entirety of the time they work, they can be steered towards less rewarding STEMM roles than their male counterparts like coordination and communication, and they can be looked over for discretionary bonuses and promotions which can favor men over women.

“There is definitely a gender pay gap in STEMM and it is completely unfair,” Ozgun said. “It undermines the effort that women put into these jobs and frankly, I honestly think they put more effort than men to be able to get where they want to. I think that definitely impacts how much women want to get involved in STEMM because gender pay is less prevalent in other study areas. It’s just really discouraging.”

“In math or different classrooms like that, the guys bunch together, so even if I had questions or answers, I wouldn’t really feel comfortable asking them,” Anderson said. “It’s not necessarily because I’m a girl, but because guys tend to pack together.”

While some may think that the increase of women in STEMM would create more equality, and  improve the working environment for women, according to the NCBI, studies done on the “backlash” effect have shown that women in more equally gender balanced STEMM fields face more sexual violence victimization than those in non-STEMM fields, or STEMM fields still dominated by men. According to the Communications of the ACM, in a survey done by the ITIC, 61% of women in STEMM said they had experienced workplace sexual harassment, and 78% said they experienced gender bias.

“When someone is required to do things in order to get a promotion or get a job, and they’re not willing to compromise themselves in that way, and they get fired because of it, there’s a problem,” Gummerman said. “Constantly being reminded about parts of their body or getting pinched or, just overt touching, there’s all kinds of things that young females in certain situations are subjected to. I don’t really know how it is nowadays, but I know when I was younger, it was pervasive.”

Apart from how they are treated within the field, women’s lives outside of work can also impact what fields they go into and how they are seen by their employers. According to the NCBI, in a poll done in 2018, 25% of U.S. responders agreed that it is better for women to stay home while men work. In addition to this, the NCBI states that parental status and its correlation with expected commitment negatively affects women while it positively affects men, with women being paid on average 7% less when they have kids while men are paid 4% more.

“I haven’t directly noticed a lot of misogyny or harassment in my experience, but I am cognizant of situations where assumptions are made because I am female,” Sue said. “When I had both of my kids, a lot of my colleagues assumed that I would quit my job or scale back my work schedule significantly, but this assumption challenged me to work hard to make sure I didn’t miss a beat when I returned to work from being on maternity leave.”

ENCOURAGING INVOLVEMENT

Early media interactions children have can influence their chosen careers. According to a survey done by ZenBusiness, around six in 10 people say that media such as TV and books influenced their career choice. According to research done by the Geena Davis Institute on streaming content from 2007 – 2017, women made up only 37.1% of STEMM characters. Women made up 41.1% of STEMM characters in television while they only made up 20.9% of STEMM characters in film.

“I don’t think women are encouraged to go into STEMM early on,” senior Kate Snyder said. “Even with the toys we give to children, many of them are not math and science-based when it comes to girls, and this subconsciously, kind of dissuades them from pursuing careers that are built upon these fundamentals. In the media a lot of STEMM representation is male. One show I watched as a kid which is a part of my crazy love of the ocean was the Octonauts, and in the show there was a girl bunny rabbit engineer. That was my first introduction to engineering as a little kid, even if I didn’t realize it. That was also probably the only representation of women in STEMM I ever watched as a little kid, there is just not a lot of representation out there.”

According to a survey done by the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET), when asked why women don’t pursue careers in STEMM as much as men, 45.31% of responders said it is because women aren’t encouraged to think about STEMM careers while in school. One aspect of school which Ozgun believes has impacted her involvement in STEMM was the presence of female teachers and role models in her life.

“I’ve had a decent amount of STEMM teachers who are women, and I feel like they’ve really allowed me to feel like I have a place in this area of study, and they’ve made me really feel comfortable,” Ozgun said. “My parents are also really supportive, and they’re really proud of me for what I’ve achieved, their support definitely helps. It’s important to have women doing everything, especially for younger girls who are in elementary school, they need to have maturing people to show them that a woman has space in every single industry and every single thing that they want to do. That’s a really important thing that we lack.”

According to Aspen University, increasing the number of women in STEMM is important to address the current imbalance in STEMM research which specifically ignores women’s health issues and female user preferences. In addition to this, according to the Cancer Research Institute, an increase in women in STEMM ensures diverse perspectives, and the representation can motivate girls to consider pursuing a career in STEMM.

“It is important to have diverse opinions in all fields, but especially problem-solving fields like STEMM,” Fellow Silicon Design Engineer at AMD Sarah Tower said. “As a society we are more successful when we incorporate multiple points of view and differing strengths. Having women in STEMM is crucial for innovation as well. Women bring unique perspectives and approaches, which can lead to more effective solutions for complex challenges and for driving technology advancements.”

Even with more STEMM encouragement for young girls, there is still the problem of the “leaky pipeline.” The leaky pipeline phenomenon is seen when the participation of women in academic classes is high, but the number drops as courses advance or as women move up in their field. According to the MIT science policy review, there are many things that can cause the leaky pipeline such as lack of female mentors or role models, implicit bias, and challenges due to parenthood.

“Women belong in STEMM fields and the more inclusive schools can make the curriculum that supports STEMM careers and encourage females to be curious about math and science, the more they will be inspired to pursue a STEMM career,” Sue said. “If you are a female considering a career in STEMM, expand your network by talking to other women that are in STEMM careers.  This can not only help find career opportunities, but also connect with other females who can share their experiences and perspectives on the field.”