Cecilia Machado: Women in Stem

Many barriers that women faced to enter and progress in the labor market could be overcome over the last few decades. There are, for example, more women with higher education than men (IBGE, Gender Statistics 2021). If, on the one hand, educational convergence between men and women confers credentials for equal employment opportunities, on the other hand, factors underlying the university degree, such as course choices, access to high-paying jobs and career progression, are where many discrepancies are still observed.

In particular, the low adherence of women to careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem) is emblematic. The sector contributes to innovation and the diffusion of new ideas and processes in the economy, with attractive salaries and good career prospects. The inherent flexibility of work, favored by the adoption of technologies in these careers, is an additional advantage for women, who demand and value this amenity in the balance of their double shifts.

In a survey I carried out with Rachter, Schanaider and Stussi, we showed that there are important losses along the way and that difficulties accumulate and overlap throughout the career trajectory of women in Stem occupations. According to the most recent Census (2010), 37.5% of individuals with a degree in Stem are women and 62.5% are men, which gives them a disadvantage at the start.

Considering the choice of courses, detailed analysis reveals that men and women make different choices even within the Stem sector: women are the majority in areas that pay less, such as biology and chemistry, and minorities in areas that pay more, such as engineering.

Second, women are less likely to work in their respective areas of Stem specialization, and the transition from university to the labor market generates greater losses for them. Also based on data from the 2010 Census, we calculated that only 24% of women graduated from Stem work in the area, compared to approximately 36% of men. This difference is not unique to Brazil — similar calculations for the United States indicate that the proportion of employed women with a degree in Stem working in the area is 23%, compared to 40% of men.

Third, men are able to enter companies that pay higher wages—which begins with their first job and continues throughout their careers. Much of the pay gap that emerges between men and women in the Stem sector is related to the salary premium that companies pay, even though men and women have equivalent qualifications and perform similar roles. Access to good jobs is as important as a degree in salary returns.

And finally, the progression is slower among women. In our survey, we show that, at the beginning of their careers, the gender distribution of Stem graduates working in Stem professions is close to the distribution of Stem graduates. However, the participation rate diverges over time as women stop working in these occupations.

The low representation of women in Stem has real implications for the economy, whether for growth —diverse teams innovate more—, or for reducing inequalities —wages in the Stem sector are higher, especially in more math-intensive areas. The analysis reinforces that a large part of the differences observed in the labor market is the result of the choice of courses and employment decisions that accompany the entire career trajectory of women, in a phenomenon that became known as the “leaky pipeline” (leaky pipeline , in free translation).

Increasing the representation of women in Stem involves combating pre-existing inequalities, such as cultural norms and gender stereotypes that come from a very early age, influencing women’s interest, acceptance and persistence in high-return occupations.