8.2.2022
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
C 67/139 Thursday 10 June 2021
are more than three times more men than women; whereas significant levels of gender segregation among STEM students and graduates lay the ground for future gender segregation in STEM-related careers; whereas very few teenage girls in the Member States (less than 3 %) express an interest in working as an ICT professional at the age of 30 (11); whereas it is particularly difficult for women from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds to enter the STEM sector; whereas although there has been a positive trend in the involvement and interest of girls in STEM education, the percentages remain insufficient; whereas attitudes towards STEM do not differ between boys and girls through primary education, and in many cases girls often outperform boys in STEM and ICT-related tasks (12); whereas gender differences in STEM subjects in higher education are not justified by academic performance, as girls and boys show similar levels of achievement in science and maths in secondary level education; whereas, however, girls fear that they will be less successful than boys in STEM-related careers and, as a result, women are less confident in their own digital skills; whereas social norms and gendered expectations about career choices, which are often reinforced through educational content and curricula, are two of the drivers of gender segregation in higher education;
C. whereas women who major in STEM fields can struggle to find their place in the STEM job sector and are less likely than their male counterparts to enter STEM occupations or remain in them as a result of the various barriers that exist, such as gender stereotypes, male-dominated workplaces, discrimination and prejudice, conscious and unconscious bias, sexual harassment, a negative working environment, and a lack of female role models and mentors; whereas reducing the gender gap in STEM education areas could reduce the skills gap, increase employment and the productivity of women and reduce professional segregation, which would ultimately foster economic growth through higher productivity and increased labour; whereas closing the gender gap in STEM careers would contribute to an increase in EU GDP per capita by 2,2 to 3,0 % by 2050 (13); whereas closing the gender gap in STEM careers would constitute a step towards gender equality and the fulfilment of women’s and girls’ human rights, and would have a positive impact in reducing the gender pay and gender pension gaps;
D. whereas according to a survey by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (14), an estimated 55 % of women in the EU have faced sexual harassment since the age of 15 and 14 % of women have experienced cyber harassment since the age of 15; whereas many women have been the victims of new forms of cyber violence during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as online sexual and psychological harassment; whereas measures to address these new forms of sexual and psychological harassment are urgently needed; whereas high incidences of sexual harassment have been reported in STEM education facilities, including schools, universities and workplaces, which further excludes women from the sector;
E. whereas the under-representation of women who work in innovative technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), is a matter of concern, as it can negatively affect the design, development and implementation of these technologies, causing the replication of existing discriminatory practices and stereotypes and the development of ‘gender-biased algorithms’; whereas efforts to tackle gender bias, stereotypes and inequality in the digital sector are insufficient; whereas the gender gap persists across all digital technology domains, notably with regard to AI and cybersecurity, thereby solidifying a male-biased trajectory for the digital sector in the foreseeable future; whereas addressing these biases requires the development of clear ethics and transparency requirements; whereas incomplete and inaccurate data sets and the lack of gender-disaggregated data can distort the processing and reasoning of AI systems and further jeopardise the achievement of gender equality in society; whereas due consideration should also be given to the unique circumstances of Europe’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with particular regard to their size, ability to
(11) (12) (13) (14)
International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS) 2018.
O’Dea, R. E., Lagisz, M., Jennions, M. D. et al., ‘Gender differences in individual variation in academic grades fail to fit expected patterns for STEM’, Nature Communications 9, 3777, 2018.
European Institute for Gender Equality, Economic benefits of gender equality in the EU: How gender equality in STEM education leads to economic growth, 2017.
EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, Violence against women: an EU-wide survey, 2014.