The UNESCO, in its Agenda 2030, highlights the need to achieve gender equality and to empower all women and girls, and it recognises the important digital divide that exists in access for women to careers in the STEM field.

In Spain, according to the Libro Blanco de las mujeres en el ámbito tecnológico (2019), only 16% of professionals in the STEM fields are women, and very few, just 0.7%, are interested in studying a degree related to digital technologies. Different administrations – state, European and international – are investing efforts in attracting women to this field. For example, the Isonomia Foundation teaches courses in information and communication technologies for women, as well as conducting research and dissemination campaigns in this sense. On a European scale, the Women in Science initiative is framed within the EU strategy to achieve gender equality in research and innovation. International institutions such as the UNESCO are also pursuing the achievement of this goal. However, the latest data available from the Spanish university system on enrolment for degrees, dropout rates, and academic performance (percentage of subjects passed with respect to those enrolled) and outcomes obtained (average grade in the academic record) show gender differences in all indicators. 

Along the lines of analysing in greater depth the existing gender gap, the results of the MindGAP project, on which this article is based, should help to determine the role of self-perception of digital competence as a predictor of enrolments in science, technology, engineering and mathematics courses. Furthermore, the project will enable definition of the profile of women who complete their studies in the STEM area. 

In Spain, according to data obtained from the Integrated University System (SIIU) of the Ministry of Universities, a marked gender gap in access to university studies is observed across all university science and technology degree courses. Access by women to these courses, which is measured based on enrolments completed, is lower in comparison with courses in other areas. Thus, the courses most chosen by women lie clearly in areas outside of STEM: in education, 78% of the total students enrolled are women; in health sciences and social services, 72%; in social sciences, 63%; and in arts and humanities, 61%.

In the STEM fields, the gap is greater for studies related to technology (13% of students enrolled are women, versus 87% for men) and engineering (29% and 71%, respectively). In the case of mathematics, there are increasingly fewer women enrolled. For sciences, it is observed that the proportion of women enrolled is also lower, specifically accounting for 42% versus 58% for men, with the only exception being life sciences (59% women and 41% men). 

According to the study “Why don’t more girls choose to pursue a science career?”, produced by the OECD based on data from 2018, on the academic achievement of students in mathematics, sciences, and reading in secondary education (within the framework of the Programme for International Student Assessment, PISA), the gender gap in the STEM field is already evident among young people aged 15 years. Meanwhile, the report Cracking the code: girls’ and women’s education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), published by the UNESCO in 2019, highlights, among the different factors that influence decisions on future studies, how each student perceives himself or herself with regard to these types of scientific studies, as well as the direct influence of their family and educational context. 

In the first years of a degree course, dropping out of studying or changing university degree course is relatively common, although the frequency gradually declines as the academic years pass. Dropping out of university is more frequent on degree courses taught by distance universities, and among the aspects that would explain this are the difficulties involved in studying independently, or the feelings of loneliness that can be caused by not attending classes in person.

In general, women and men drop out in greater percentages of courses in the social sciences (30.1%), followed by the arts and humanities field (28.8%) with the technological field coming third (27.9%). By gender, despite women not usually choosing STEM degrees, once they start them, they have the lowest drop-out rate for these types of courses.

At campus-based universities, which represent 85% of the total, the percentage of overall dropping out by women is lower with respect to men, between 2 and 6 points, except in the field of sports, hospitality, tourism and others considered as services. In contrast, this tendency disappears at non-campus universities as, in some areas, women drop out in larger numbers from their higher education courses, especially in STEM degrees.

In the Spanish university system, women show higher academic achievement than men, measured by the percentage of credits passed with respect to those enrolled in. Specifically, in the 2019-2020 academic year, women passed close to 88% of the subjects in which they were enrolled, while men passed 80% of their course subjects. This pattern is also detected in the STEM area, although the difference between women and men is greater in engineering studies and smaller in science degrees. 

The average grade obtained in university STEM degree courses is similar for both sexes. However, men obtain a better grade in degree courses linked to mathematics (7.2 out of 10), while women present better academic outcomes in engineering and architecture (6.8 out of 10), courses in which a higher rate of achievement is also detected.

The data confirm the existence of the gender gap in access to university degrees in Spain, which is concentrated in the technology and engineering areas. However, women who study for degrees in the STEM field obtain, on average, a higher academic achievement rate than men and similar grades to them. 

In this sense, with the gender gap in access to courses in science, technology, engineering and mathematics proven, the next step is to describe what happens at earlier education levels, in other words, to define when and in relation to what aspects the gender gap emerges, and how this gap evolves during pre-university education. This should help towards achieving full inclusion for women in an area that, at present, is not representative of female talent, as is that of STEM. 

Based on a quantitative focus, the MindGAP project, on which this article is based, measures performance in digital skills and drop-out rates from STEM courses at educational institutions. It also compares this information with that obtained from tools measuring self-perception of digital skills, in a representative sample of Spanish students ranging from primary education to the university phase. The identification of how different sociodemographic factors – and particularly, the self-perception of digital skills – determine choice of higher education course, may aid in the design of measures that incentivise greater enrolment of women in university studies in the STEM field.

MATEOS, S., and C. GÓMEZ (2019): Libro Blanco de las mujeres en el ámbito tecnológico, Madrid: Secretaría de Estado para el Avance Digital, Ministerio de Economía y Empresa.

MMOSTAFA, T. (2019): «Why don’t more girls choose to pursue a science career?», PISA in Focus, 93, OECD Publishing.

OCDE (2015): Students, Computers and Learning. Making the Connection, OECD Publishing.

Unesco (2019): Descifrar el código: la educación de las niñas y las mujeres en ciencias, tecnología, ingeniería y matemáticas (STEM).