Due to the efforts of teachers, administrators and nonprofits, girls have drawn even with boys in participation in high school STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) classes, according to an article from EdSource. Yet that progress reportedly lags once women enter college and later join the workforce.
According to the article, data from the National Girls Collaborative Project demonstrates that girls now make up half the enrollment in high school science and math classes and they are scoring nearly identically to their male classmates on standardized tests. The numbers majoring in STEM fields in college, however, have reportedly increased much less dramatically. And, according to the article, once in the workforce, the statistics are even less encouraging: only 11% of physicists and astronomers are women and just over 10% percent of electrical and computer hardware engineers are women. Women also reportedly make up fewer than 8% of mechanical engineers.
Read more from EdSource here.