Author: Kyle Plantz / Source: Science News for Students
A female computer scientist today might feel outnumbered. And she would be right: There are more than five times as many men as women in that field, according to a new study.
Unfortunately, her counterpart living in the next century may feel the same. And in the century after that. In fact, it might take a whopping 280 years before men and women are equally represented in computer-science research, the study suggests.Scientists from the University of Melbourne in Australia compared the overall numbers of men and women working in science. They looked at gender gaps in several fields in science, technology, engineering, math and medicine. Together, these are referred to as the STEMM fields. The researchers analyzed how large the differences in participation were between men and women. And they wanted to know whether — and how quickly — those gaps might disappear.
People have known about gender gaps in STEMM fields for a long time. Many programs have worked to increase the number of girls and women in science. Clubs and girls-only competitions encourage girls to pursue STEMM training. Women STEMM professionals may find support in mentoring networks. Such efforts have helped. The gap has gotten smaller in recent years — but only in some fields. That may lead people to think science is now on a path toward equality between the genders.
In fact, there’s still a long way to go, the data show.
That’s especially true for for women in computer science, physics, math and surgery. At current rates of change, the researchers say, none of those gaps are likely to close for at least five decades. They reported…The post Women are closing the participation gap in science, but slowly appeared first on FeedBox.