A RECENT study has revealed a significant gender gap in engineering, technology, and computing fields, with women making up less than one-fifth of students in these disciplines and facing challenges in earning top grades compared to their male counterparts.
Researchers from the women-only Murray Edwards College at Cambridge and the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) conducted the study, shedding light on the underrepresentation of women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) courses in British universities.
The findings for the academic year 2021/22 indicate that a mere 14 per cent of professors teaching Physics, Maths, and Chemistry across the country were women, reflecting a stark gender disparity.
The situation is even more concerning in Electrical and Computer Engineering, where only nine per cent of professors are women.
Notably, in Clinical Medicine, Anatomy, and Physiology, women constitute just one-third of professors, despite 70 per cent of Medicine graduates being women.
These statistics underscore the need for greater gender diversity and equity in STEM education and academia.
Gender disparities in STEM degree attainment at Cambridge University have come into sharp focus.
Dorothy Byrne, the president of Murray Edwards College, commented: “The UK’s education system is failing bright girls and young women with the capacity to become the brilliant scientists, mathematicians and engineers of the future. These ‘missing women’ also represent a massive loss to the UK economy.”
Data from 2022 reveals that just eight per cent of female students achieved first-class degrees in Computer Science, while a striking 32 per cent of male students earned the same distinction.
A similar pattern emerged in Mathematics, where more than twice as many men received first-class degrees compared to their female counterparts.
These concerning statistics were unveiled during the Women in STEM Festival on 26 and 27 October.
The event featured discussions led by female professors who shared their research findings and explored the systemic factors contributing to gender inequality in STEM fields, both within industries and in higher education.
The trend of underrepresentation in STEM within the UK also extends to Warwick. In the 2018/19 academic year, women made up just 39 per cent of undergraduate Mathematics students at the university.
In the School of Engineering in 2022, only 22 per cent of undergraduate students and a mere 15 per cent of academic staff were women.
These numbers are notably lower than the university’s overall statistics, where, in 2022/23, women accounted for 50 per cent of students and 26.5 per cent of professors across various academic disciplines.
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