Lesser Percentage of Girls Prefer Career in STEM than Boys Finds Survey

By: WE Staff | Thursday, 1 July 2021

According to a multi-city survey involving 5,000 parents and as many school students, approximately 57% of female students are interested in pursuing a career in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM), compared to 85% of male students (aged 5-15 years).

The edtech platform Avishkaar, which focuses on AI, robotics, and app development, conducted the survey, titled “India's Future in Next-Generation Tech & STEM.” Participants came from Delhi-NCR, Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad, and Cochin for the online exercise (Kochi).

According to the survey, 95% of all students interested in pursuing STEM careers, including girls, recalled male role models as inspiration in the field, indicating a lack of female presence in the field.

According to the survey, 56% of parents surveyed preferred their children to pursue IT/Technology over any other subject, but this number dropped to 33% among parent with daughters respondents.

STEM careers include everything from aeronautics and software engineering to urban planning and science research.

According to the survey, parents continue to be influential in making career decisions for their children, with 30% of parents believing that the work environment in our country in STEM-related fields is more suitable for males than for females.

“We had set out to understand parent and student expectations with this survey but ended up finding the reason for gender gap in the field of STEM. This gender bias among parents in a way is leaking and being perpetrated by the children,” says, Avishkaar COO and cofounder Pooja Goyal.

“We are looking at a variety of response systems in order to bring more female students into STEM. These include amplifying the success of female students, supporting more female students by means of scholarship and being more gender neutral in our advertisements,” she said. 

Among the survey's other findings, nearly 42% of parents with children aged 13 to 17 believe their child's current school curriculum is not preparing them for a career in STEM. Meanwhile, 73% of students believe their school is doing enough to encourage them to pursue a career in STEM and next-generation technology.

While IT/Technology is the most popular field among parents, science came in second, with 46% of those polled saying they want their children to study it. Math came in second at 43%, with only 23% of parents wanting their children to pursue arts-related subjects.

The survey also emphasised the importance of schools implementing hands-on learning, exposing children to the world of innovation, and moving away from rote learning techniques.