Issues of women’s participation are not exclusive to STEM fields. In the Canadian workforce, 31% is the difference in earnings between working men and women in Canada. That is, if you add up the earnings of all working women, that sum is about 31% less than the combined earnings of all working men. For women of colour, the gap is 37.5%, while it’s estimated that Indigenous women earn a whopping 54% less than men.
Girls and women, especially those from minority groups, rural and remote areas and disadvantaged
backgrounds, face multiple barriers to STEM participation and as a result have to overcome more challenges than their male counterparts.
Factors such as bias and stereotyping, career insecurity, a lack of flexible work arrangements, and lack of female role models have been demonstrated to greatly influence girls and women’s
decisions to enter and remain in STEM education and careers. Experiences of bias and stereotyping begin early in life and have a significant impact on girls and women’s development of confidence and interest in STEM. The perception that some STEM fields are a better fit for males, particularly by influencers such as parents, educators, and career counsellors, is one of the biggest
barriers to girls and women participating and persisting in STEM.
A lack of diverse female role models in STEM, whether in the classroom, at work or on the screen, further decreases girls’ and women’s likelihood of persisting in STEM education and considering STEM as a career option. For girls, female role models are crucial to their perception of whether they could work in STEM. In fields where women are particularly underrepresented such as physics and engineering, surveys have found more than 80 per cent of women perceive a lack of female role models as a significant hurdle for gender equity in their field.
Working conditions and job insecurity have a strong negative impact on women entering into and maintaining careers in STEM, and are longstanding issues. STEM employees encounter less flexible working conditions, large numbers of short-term contracts, grant dependent positions, and pathways to promotions that can be subject to gender bias. Particularly in academia, finding ongoing positions (tenure) can be very difficult. Additionally, the pathway to senior positions in STEM academia and industry has traditionally been seen as one where there are no career breaks or access to part-time duties, with STEM professionals reporting that taking maternity
leave is detrimental to their careers.
In many STEM fields, maintaining skill sets and professional networks are vital to career progression,
however gendered caring expectations and different work place approaches to facilitating part-time work make opportunities to undertake training to re-learn, maintain or gain new skills and attendance at networking events or conferences difficult. A further lack of support networks, including mentors, career sponsors and professional groups, contributes to women feeling out of place in STEM fields, and can lead to thoughts about leaving the field. Feeling like a misfit, or an imposter, hinders achievement, engagement, and persistence in STEM education and careers, and causes girls and women to question their abilities and interest in STEM.