---
title: "Female education in STEM"
chunk: 2/2
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_education_in_STEM"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:19:44.660665+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

=== Family and peer level ===
Parents, including their beliefs and expectations, play an important role in shaping girls' attitudes towards, and interest in, STEM studies. Parents with traditional beliefs about gender roles and who treat girls and boys unequally can reinforce stereotypes about gender and ability in STEM. Parents can also have a strong influence on girls' STEM participation and learning achievement through the family values, environment, experiences, and encouragement that they provide. Some research finds that parents’ expectations, particularly the mother's expectations, have more influence on the higher education and career choices of girls than those of boys. Higher socio-economic status and parental educational qualifications are associated with higher scores in mathematics and science for both girls and boys. Girls' science performance appears to be more strongly associated with mothers' higher educational qualifications, and boys' with their fathers'. Family members with STEM careers can also influence girls’ STEM engagement. The broader socio-cultural context of the family can also play a role. Factors such as ethnicity, language used at home, immigrant status, and family structure may also have an influence on girls' participation and performance in STEM. Peers can also impact on girls’ motivation and feeling of belonging in STEM education. Influence of female peers is a significant predictor of girls' interest and confidence in mathematics and science.

=== School level ===
Qualified teachers with specialisation in STEM can positively influence girls' performance and engagement with STEM education and their interest in pursuing STEM careers. Female STEM teachers often have stronger benefits for girls, possibly by acting as role models and by helping to dispel stereotypes about sex-based STEM ability. Teachers' beliefs, attitudes, behaviours, and interactions with students, as well as curricula and learning materials, can all play a role as well. Opportunities for real-life experiences with STEM, including hands-on practice, apprenticeships, career counselling, and mentoring can expand girls' understanding of STEM studies and professions and maintain interest. Assessment processes and tools that are gender-biased or include gender stereotypes may negatively affect girls' performance in STEM. Girls' learning outcomes in STEM can also be compromised by psychological factors such as mathematics or test anxiety.
The confidence of a female teacher in STEM subjects also has a strong impact on how well female students will perform in those subjects in the elementary school classroom. For example, female elementary teachers with anxiety around math will negatively affect the achievement of their female students in math. Correlations have been found between gender bias in female elementary students and their achievement in mathematics. Those who had lower achievement over time have also been found to believe that boys are inherently better at mathematics than girls.

=== Societal level ===
Cultural and social norms influence girls’ perceptions about their abilities, roles in society and career and life aspirations. The degree of gender equality in wider society influences girls' participation and performance in STEM. To inspire and create an environment that is welcoming to girls, it is important to encourage them to pursue STEM areas from an early age in their education. In countries with greater gender equality, girls tend to have more positive attitudes and confidence about mathematics, and the gender gap in achievement in the subject is smaller. Additionally, in some countries there were more women receiving computer science degrees than men. That was primarily because a computer science degree was seen as indoor work. When the job title was adjusted to sound less masculine and more geared towards relationship building, females appeared to be more likely to enter the STEM field. Gender stereotypes portrayed in the media are internalised by children and adults and affect the way they view themselves and others. Media can perpetuate or challenge gender stereotypes about STEM abilities and careers.

=== Effects of gender disparities ===
The long-term effects of gender stereotypes relating to women's ability to succeed in STEM may contribute to lower self-confidence and perceptions of ability in fields where men are the majority. These perceptions can influence participation and engagement in STEM education and careers. Working in environments where men outnumber women, and where women may face lower expectations from colleagues can negatively affect performance and workplace experiences. Such conditions may also contribute to feelings of isolation and a reduced sense of belonging. This in part is due to the heuristic representativeness – when people do not look the part, others are more critical of them. In a heavily male populated environment, men are more critical of women because they do not appear how the abstract representation in STEM fields typically appear. A study demonstrating the effects of construal level priming conditions between men and women, concluded that high construal levels facilitate the use of representativeness heuristic. In contrast, low construal conditions portrayed a decrease in the use of representativeness heuristic.

== Possible solutions to reduce gender gap ==
Inclusive STEM approaches such as Problem-Based Learning (PBL) and personalization of learning could generate solutions to lower gender disparities in STEM.
Students' intellectual engagement and success can develop and improve as a result of the instructor's gender. Gender disparities decrease when a course is taught by a female instructor.
Increasing awareness about gender biases in STEM careers can also reduce the gender gap.

== Hybrid exhibition by UNESCO ==
Creative Resilience: Art by Women in Science is a multi–media exhibition and accompanying publication, produced in 2021 by the Gender Section of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The project aims to give visibility to women, both professionals and university students, working in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). With short biographical information and graphic reproductions of their artworks dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic and accessible online, the project provides a platform for women scientists to express their experiences, insights, and creative responses to the pandemic.

== Sources ==
 This article incorporates text from a free content work (license statement/permission). Text taken from Cracking the code: girls' and women's education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)​, 23, 37, 46, 49, 56, 58, UNESCO, UNESCO.  

== References ==