UNESCO's GEM Reveals Women Make up Only 35% of STEM Graduates Globally

By: WE Staff | Monday, 19 May 2025

• UNESCO's Global Education Monitoring (GEM) team releases a new report
• It discloses that women hold a mere 35% of STEM graduates
• It states, just 50% of policies to support STEM education in various countries focus on girls and women

A recent report by UNESCO's Global Education Monitoring (GEM) team (who monitor worldwide trends and progress in education) states that women hold just 35% of STEM graduates. Though little progress has also been seen during the past 10 years.

It also refers to a high lack of confidence in mathematics among girls with a chronic gender stereotype as significant impediments still limit the engagement of women in similar fields. The group reported that the continuous digital revolution pioneered by men while women make up only 26% of the modern-day workforce, in artificial intelligence (AI) and data science.

A GEM team member gave a statement to PTI, saying, “Critical data from 2018–23 shows that women made up only 35 per cent of STEM graduates globally, with no progress over the past 10 years. Part of this can be explained by the fact that girls’ confidence in mathematics appears to be knocked early, even when they perform well. Part of it can be explained by negative gender stereotypes that also prevent women from pursuing STEM careers.”

Adding, “Only one in four women with an information technology degree took up digital occupations in the European Union, compared with over one in two men. The digital transformation is led by men. Women constitute only 26 per cent of employees in data and artificial intelligence, 15 per cent in engineering, and 12 per cent in cloud computing across the world’s leading economies. This is a loss to society.”

According to the team, whilst a total of 68% countries worldwide includes policies for supporting STEM education, only 50% of these policies’ target is women and girls.