{"id":33897,"date":"2022-02-14T15:16:34","date_gmt":"2022-02-14T14:16:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spanish.rberzal.com\/women-in-stem-challenges-and-opportunities\/"},"modified":"2025-11-06T17:49:45","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T16:49:45","slug":"women-in-stem-challenges-and-opportunities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spanish.rberzal.com\/es\/women-in-stem-challenges-and-opportunities\/","title":{"rendered":"Women in STEM: challenges and opportunities"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>BLOG POST WRITTEN BY <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/raquel-diversitasinstitute\/\">Raquel Barrera<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Today, 11<sup>th<\/sup> of February, we celebrate the <strong>International Day of Women and Girls in Science<\/strong> and I would like to take the opportunity to point out what are the challenges and opportunities that girls and women face in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics ) field.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Despite some improvements in recent decades, women and girls are still underrepresented in STEM. In order to analyse why is this still happening, it is necessary to look at some facts around the topic:<\/p>\n<p>In terms of education, the last UNESCO report <a href=\"https:\/\/unesdoc.unesco.org\/ark:\/48223\/pf0000253479\">Cracking the code: Girls\u2019 and women\u2019s education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics<\/a> shows some clues that provide useful information around the factors behind the lack of women and girls in these areas from an education perspective. These factors go from an individual level to a more broad and systemic societal level. Some of the causes depicted in this study are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cGirls appear to lose interest in STEM subjects with age. Gender stereotypes around the idea that STEM careers are male dominant can have a negatively effect in girl\u2019s engagement\u201d.<\/li>\n<li>\u201cLack of female role-models in education\u201d.<\/li>\n<li>\u201cCultural and social norms influence girl\u2019s perceptions. In countries with greater gender equality, girls tend to have more positive attitudes and confidence in subjects such as mathematics\u201d.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stemwomen.com\/blog\/2021\/01\/women-in-stem-percentages-of-women-in-stem-statistics\">Women in Stem<\/a>, using recent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ucas.com\/\">UCAS<\/a> data from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hesa.ac.uk\/\">HESA<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wisecampaign.org.uk\/\">WISE campaigns<\/a>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>only 35% of STEM students in higher education in the UK are women. In particular, in Computer Sciences and Engineering, the percentage falls to 19%.<\/li>\n<li><strong>women make up 24% of the STEM workforce in the UK<\/strong>. According to the trends from the last decade, it is estimated that by 2030, they expect to reach over 29% of women in the sector.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, according to a recent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britishscienceassociation.org\/equity-in-stem-workforce\">report<\/a> of the British Science Association, \u201cthe STEM workforce, when contrasted with the rest of the UK workforce, has a lower share of female workers (27% vs. 52%). In particular, the proportion of female ICT professionals has remained static at 16%\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>These facts and figures confirm that the sector is still facing a low proportion of women. Therefore, the question of why is so crucial to attract more women to the STEM field requires our attention.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>STEM is a vital and critical economic sector that represents <strong>18% of the UK\u2019s total workforce<\/strong>, a percentage that in the near future is going to grow even more. Meeting the increasing need of talent with more women moving towards STEM careers becomes absolutely essential.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>At this point, from the workplace point of view, what can companies do to help reversing this trend?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Diversify recruitment strategies<\/strong>, looking for a wider range of candidates in different talent pools; actively seeking female talent through different channels or having a more diverse recruiting board incorporating the gender perspective in the recruitment process involving women in the decision-making.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Retain female talent<\/strong>, creating an inclusive workplace culture; supporting returners; introducing mentoring and reverse mentoring programmes or adopting policies and internal programmes to better reconcile the work-life offering them to both men and women.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Attract future talent<\/strong> collaborating with schools and universities through, for example, STEM careers events; organising open days at the company; hearing inspiring talks from potential employers making visible women of the organisation as an inspiring role model or creating networks that can reach to girls who are thinking of choosing a career in STEM. In that sense, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/insights.ise.org.uk\/diversity\/blog-how-to-attract-more-women-into-stem\/\">Institute of Student Employers<\/a> in a survey that was conducted, \u201cthe majority (95%) of respondents said they were more likely to apply to a company they had spoken to at a careers event and 58% said that STEM Women events had changed their minds about potential career paths\u201d.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BLOG POST WRITTEN BY Raquel Barrera &nbsp; Today, 11th of February, we celebrate the International Day of Women and Girls in Science and I would like to take the opportunity to point out what are the challenges and opportunities that girls and women face in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics ) field. &nbsp; Despite some improvements in recent decades, women and girls are still underrepresented in STEM. In order to analyse why is this still happening, it is necessary to look at some facts around the topic: In terms of education, the last UNESCO report Cracking the code: Girls\u2019 and women\u2019s education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics shows some clues that provide useful information around the factors behind the lack of women and girls in these areas from an education perspective. These factors go from an individual level to a more broad and systemic societal level. Some of the causes depicted in this study are: \u201cGirls appear to lose interest in STEM subjects with age. Gender stereotypes around the idea that STEM careers are male dominant can have a negatively effect in girl\u2019s engagement\u201d. \u201cLack of female role-models in education\u201d. \u201cCultural and social norms influence girl\u2019s perceptions. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"<!-- wp:paragraph -->\r\n<p>Esta es una p\u00e1gina de ejemplo. Es diferente a una entrada del blog porque permanecer\u00e1 en un solo lugar y aparecer\u00e1 en la navegaci\u00f3n de tu sitio (en la mayor\u00eda de los temas). La mayor\u00eda de las personas comienzan con una p\u00e1gina \u00abAcerca de\u00bb que les presenta a los visitantes potenciales del sitio. Podr\u00edas decir algo as\u00ed:<\/p>\r\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:quote -->\r\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p>\u00a1Hola! Soy camarero de d\u00eda, aspirante a actor de noche y esta es mi web. Vivo en Mairena del Alcor, tengo un perro que se llama Firulais y me gusta el rebujito. (Y las tardes largas con caf\u00e9).<\/p><\/blockquote>\r\n<!-- \/wp:quote -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\r\n<p>\u2026o algo as\u00ed:<\/p>\r\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:quote -->\r\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p>La empresa \u00abMariscos Recio\u00bb fue fundada por Antonio Recio Mata. Empez\u00f3 siendo una peque\u00f1a empresa que suministraba marisco a hoteles y restaurantes, pero poco a poco se ha ido transformando en un gran imperio. Mariscos Recio, el mar al mejor precio.<\/p><\/blockquote>\r\n<!-- \/wp:quote -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\r\n<p>Como nuevo usuario de WordPress, deber\u00edas ir a <a href=\"http:\/\/spanish.rberzal.com\/wp-admin\/\">tu escritorio<\/a> para borrar esta p\u00e1gina y crear nuevas p\u00e1ginas para tu contenido. \u00a1P\u00e1salo bien!<\/p>\r\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->","_et_gb_content_width":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[251],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-es"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spanish.rberzal.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spanish.rberzal.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spanish.rberzal.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spanish.rberzal.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spanish.rberzal.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33897"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/spanish.rberzal.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33918,"href":"https:\/\/spanish.rberzal.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33897\/revisions\/33918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spanish.rberzal.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spanish.rberzal.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spanish.rberzal.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}