Despite ongoing efforts to encourage young girls to see themselves as budding scientists or engineers, just 11 percent of teenage girls in a new survey say they want to pursue a career in those fields.
For comparison, the survey — released Thursday by Junior Achievement — found 36 percent of boys aged 13 to 17 said they want to pursue a career in STEM, that is science, technology, engineering or math.
“Somewhere in there has to be some old stereotypes and gender biases that we just haven’t been able to break through,” complained Junior Achievement CEO Jack Kosakowski, MarketWatch.com reported. Mr. Kosakowski also reportedly described the results as “infuriating and frustrating.”
A Microsoft-commissioned survey released earlier this year found that the ages of 11 to 15 were crucial years where most young girls forsook an earlier interest in a STEM career path.
“Conformity to social expectations, gender stereotypes, gender roles and lack of role models continue to channel girls’ career choices away from STEM fields,” London School of Economist psychology professor Martin Bauer said at the time, CNN.com reported. Mr. Bauer’s study looked at young girls from 12 European countries.
So-called STEM jobs are considered by many a golden opportunity for success in the global economy of the digital age, producing higher pay and advancement potential than areas of collegiate study like the humanities, which young women have tended to prefer.
Junior Achievement’s new study did find at least one scientific field in which young girls strongly outpaced young boys: a desire to pursue a medical career. “Nearly one-quarter of girls said they favored careers in the medical or dental field, compared with just 6% of boys,” MarketWatch said.
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