mind the gap
In the US, women make up only 24% percent of the work force in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) — fields that are becoming more important in our digital era
“I entered STEM, in particular computational thinking, because it can give every single one of us super powers. We can dream up robots that save lives, improve lives, carry out physical tasks, take us places we can’t go, entertain us, and much more.”
147 years after Ellen Swallow joined MIT as the first female student and 14 years after Susan Hockfield became the first and only female president of MIT, we are still on the long road to parity in STEM careers.
Women make up 46% of the MIT undergraduate student body, the same share as in US colleges overall. However, we see a drop of the female share at each step of the academic career, resulting in only 19% female professors.
To understand the role of leadership, we analyzed 50 labs selected from all 5 schools at MIT. Looking at more than 950 researchers we found that in labs with male leadership the female share is close to the overall female share at MIT labs: 32%. However, in led labs by women the share reaches parity and is 73% higher than in male-led labs.
As labs gets bigger, the female share decreases. Furthermore, female-led labs are on average 20% smaller than labs led by men.
“Even though female STEM researchers continue to rise to the same or higher level than their male peers, they still experience strong push-back.”
Carlo Ratti, Director
Lea Rausch, Researcher
Louis Charron, Researcher, Designer, Video Editor
Linh Nguyen, Data visualization and Web Developer
To Contact: senseable-contacts@mit.edu
U.S. Department of Commerce
Institutional Research, Office of the Provost
Research on gender and leadership at MIT
950 staff members and researchers from 50 labs at MIT, randomly selected from all 5 schools. For significance, 30% of the labs selected are lead by women. Data based on publicly available information.
Disclaimer
We realize there are more intersectional factors to consider. We also acknowledge that not every individual in STEM may identify with the male or female gender labels. This is only a cursory look at the problem, and we encourage further conversation.
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