Infographic: New take on the old STEM gap
Yes, yes. It’s 2013 and we’re still talking about the underrepresentation of women in science, technology, engineering and math careers.
Those in the field call them STEM jobs.
“This conversation keeps coming back because more and more people believe that these things can be changed, it’s about pushing the momentum until we basically change it,” said Raquel Perez-Castillejos, an assistant professor in the New Jersey Institute of Technology’s department of biomedical engineering.
NJIT recruiters commissioned an infographic to discuss not just the job gap — but the confidence gap — between men and women in STEMs.
Even though they’ve successfully made their way to her university-level courses, Perez-Castillejos said she’s noticed hesitancy among her female students .
Ask students to offer the right way to connect an electrode, or give them a chance to solve a problem, and Perez-Castillejos said men volunteer an answer first.
“Usually I get five hands of guys trying to respond, at best one of a woman,” she said. “They don’t talk, just in case someone notices they don’t belong there.”
“We need their brains,” she said. “They don’t think of themselves as as good as we think of them.”
Education experts have offered up many reasons for the lingering gap — and lots of solutions to move more women into STEM jobs.
Here’s one more: Compared with counterparts in other occupations, women in STEM jobs earn 33 percent more.
Within STEM careers, men still earn more than women, but the wage difference is more narrow.
Within the STEM professions, women earn 86 cents for every dollar earned by menOverall in the U.S., women earn 77 cents for every dollar earned by men.
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