Women in STEM
In most countries girls and boys perform similarly in mathematics and science at school, yet the paths diverge sharply at university and again at work. The gap is not uniform: it is small in life sciences and very large in engineering and computing.
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In short
What is it?
Whether women study and work in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
What do the numbers show?
About 35% of students in STEM higher education are women, and about a third of the world's researchers.
Where is it happening?
Worldwide. The gap is small in life sciences and very large in engineering and computing.
Who is affected?
Girls who perform equally well in school science but do not continue into these fields.
Why does it matter?
STEM jobs are among the best paid and fastest growing — and the technology built there affects everybody.
What is it?
STEM covers science, technology, engineering and mathematics in both education and employment.
Gaps differ by discipline. Women are close to half of graduates in natural sciences in many countries, and a small minority in engineering and computing.
Retention matters as much as entry: attrition during the first years of a STEM career is a documented and separate problem from enrolment.
Why does it matter?
- STEM occupations are among the fastest-growing and best-paid, so an entry gap compounds into an income gap over a career.
- Systems built by narrow teams tend to work less well for people outside those teams — a documented issue in medical research and in artificial intelligence.
- Research agendas reflect who sets them, including which health conditions get studied.
The Numbers
35%
Share of students enrolled in STEM fields in higher education who are women
33.3%
Share of the world's researchers who are women
≈22%
Share of artificial-intelligence professionals who are women
Women as a share of graduates, by field
Global averages across reporting countries; disciplines are not equally sized.
- Health and welfare70%
- Natural sciences52%
- Computer science and informatics40%
- Engineering28%
Unit: % of graduates. Source: UNESCO, Gender equality in education, 2024
Figures on this page are reproduced from the publications listed under Sources. Linha de Fala summarises and explains them; it does not recalculate or estimate them.
Around the World
- Argentina
- High overall university participation by women coexists with low shares in engineering and computing programmes.Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics
- India
- Enrolment of women in engineering degrees is comparatively high; participation in the engineering workforce afterwards is much lower.Source: UNESCO Science Report, 2021
- United Kingdom
- Subject choice at age 16 is a strong predictor of later STEM participation, which is why policy attention has moved earlier.Source: OECD, Education at a Glance
Young Voices
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What Governments Are Doing
- Targeted scholarshipsFunding aimed at women entering engineering and computing degrees.Source: UNESCO
- Curriculum reformEarlier and compulsory computing education intended to reduce early self-selection out of the field.Source: OECD
- Pay and promotion reportingReporting duties in research institutions and technology employers, tied to public funding in some systems.Source: OECD
Data & Sources
Statistics on this page come from reliable international organisations and official datasets. Each statistic includes its original year and source so readers can verify the information themselves.
- Source
- UNESCO
- Year
- 2024
- Indicator
- Gender equality in education / girls' and women's education in STEM
- Source
- UNESCO
- Year
- 2021
- Indicator
- UNESCO Science Report: the race against time for smarter development
- Source
- World Economic Forum
- Year
- 2023
- Indicator
- Global Gender Gap Report 2023