Latest Research: Gender Gap in Computing
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Where Are the Girls?
Today less than 25% of computer science graduates are women. The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that by 2032 there will be 3.8 million computing-related job openings. At current rates, however, we can only fill about 18% of those jobs with U.S. computing bachelor's grads. Girls represent a valuable, mostly untapped talent pool.
NCWIT, 2024 By The Numbers |
What's the Problem?
Girls’ positive self-perception in relation to STEM predicts their identification with STEM professions, and girls belonging to all racial/ethnic groups are likely to benefit from having experiences with science across multiple environments including in school, at home, and outside of school.
How do middle school girls of color develop STEM identities? (Kang, et al, 2018) |
What’s the Current Landscape?
Women have made up only 25% of professionals in computing and mathematical sciences for the last 20 years. This number has dropped from 36% in 1991. Hispanic and Latino women make up 2% of computing professionals, while Black and African American women account for 3%.
2024 NCWIT Scorecard |
More Research
- Support girls and women to pursue STEM subjects and careers (UNESCO, 2024)
- Global Education Monitoring Report: Gender Report (UNESCO, 2024)
- NCWIT Scorecard: The Status of Women's Participation in Computing (NCWIT, 2024)
- Closing the STEM Gap: Why STEM classes and careers still lack girls and what we can do about it (Microsoft, 2018)
- When Women Stopped Coding (NPR's Planet Money, 2014)
- Why the engineering, computer science gender gap persists (Scientific American, 2012)
- Generation STEM: What girls say about science, technology, engineering and math (Girls Scouts, 2012)
