Women Make up Only 35% of Global STEM Graduates, says UNESCO's GEM

• UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring (GEM) team comes up with a new report
• The team reveals that women only occupy 35% of STEM graduates
• It says, only 50% of policies for supporting STEM education in different countries target women and girls

A new report by UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring (GEM) team (who tracks global trends and progress in education) says that women only occupy 35% of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) graduates. However, a little progress has also been recorded over the last 10 years.

It also highlights a substantial lack of confidence in mathematics amongst the girls with a perpetual gender stereotype since key barriers still limit the participation of women in such fields. The team noted that the current digital transformation predominantly led by men while women only represent 26% of workforce today, in data science and artificial intelligence (AI).

A GEM team member gave a statement to PTI, saying, “Critical data from 2018–23 shows that women made up only 35 per cent of STEM graduates globally, with no progress over the past 10 years. Part of this can be explained by the fact that girls’ confidence in mathematics appears to be knocked early, even when they perform well. Part of it can be explained by negative gender stereotypes that also prevent women from pursuing STEM careers.”

Adding, “Only one in four women with an information technology degree took up digital occupations in the European Union, compared with over one in two men. The digital transformation is led by men. Women constitute only 26 per cent of employees in data and artificial intelligence, 15 per cent in engineering, and 12 per cent in cloud computing across the world’s leading economies. This is a loss to society.”

According to the team, whilst a total of 68% countries worldwide includes policies for supporting STEM education, only 50% of these policies’ target is women and girls.