Women Gain in Some STEM Fields, but Not Computer Science

A few weeks ago, I wrote about ways to get more women interested in computer science. One of the points that came up frequently in my reporting is that some other STEM (science, math, engineering and technology) fields have actually been quite successful attracting more women. A report this week from the National Science Foundation lays out these trends nicely:

Source: “Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering,” National Science Foundation.

As you can see, a majority of bachelor’s degrees in some STEM fields â€" psychology, biosciences, social sciences â€" were actually given to women in recent years. And women’s participation in these fields has also risen, on net, since 1991, even if there has been some erosion in biosciences in recent years. Women receive less than half of physical sciences degrees, but they earn a much higher share than they did two decades ago.

Now take a look at the trends in computer science and engineering. Engineering is slightly more female-heavy than it was in 1991, but not much: 15.5 percent then versus 18.4 percent in 2010, the most recent year in the report. Computer science actually is more male-dominated today than it was two decades ago: Women received 29.6 percent of computer science B.A.’s in 1991, compared with 18.2 percent in 2010.

From a wage-gap perspective, it’s too bad that women have increased their share of degrees in the select fields that they have, as they are leaving money on the table. Of the STEM fields, computer science and engineering have the highest median earnings for recent college graduates without advanced degrees, according to a report from Georgetown’s Center on Education and the Workforce. The ways that majors are categorized in the Georgetown report don’t exactly line up with the groupings in the National Science Foundation report, but there are some relevant comparisons:

Source: Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce. No data available for median earnings for recent college graduates who majored in physics.

For computer science, the median earnings for recent grads with no more than a B.A. is about $50,000, and for engineers it’s about $54,000. For the other majors, median earnings for recent grads without tertiary degrees ranges from $30,000 for biology to $41,000 for math. Earnings go up with experience and with the completion of advanced degrees in all categories, but psychology â€" a field where three-quarters of bachelor’s degrees now go to women â€" still has much lower median earnings than its STEM counterparts.

Here, by the way, are the trends for STEM degrees going to members of historically underrepresented racial and ethnic minorities (blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans):

Source: “Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering,” National Science Foundation. Underrepresented minorities refer to blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans.

For whatever reason, there have been greater gains by underrepresented minorities in computer science and engineering than there have been for women, although in both cases blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans still receive a small share of total bachelor’s degrees awarded.