Unlike middle school there arent many classes in high school that caters to girls. As a result, fewer girls retain their interest and motivation in Science and Enineering subjects. There are very few female graduates in Science Technoogy and Engineering fields. Reports show that small adjustments in science and tech fields in universite and colleges such as introduction courses can increase the number of female students who enroll and remain in STEM degrees. Women drop out of STEM fields at a higher rate than men. This large gender difference in STEM academic environments generates a social backdrop in which women are signaled as numerical minorities who may not belong in the area, potentially lowering interest in STEM subjects and jobs. Furthermore, according to a recent survey of women in physics, women acquire fewer resources and have fewer prospects than men in the field.
STEM is mostly viewed as masuline. Society views women in STEM as less competent than men, only because they are not masuline. Stereotypes like these affect women's motivation and emotional state at their job. And women who do have a career in STEM are most likely to quit because of isolation and hostility in the workplace.
Taken from The longitudinal effects of STEM identity The study explored women's reaction to the social context of physics courses. The study also looked into the impact of STEM identity and gender disparities on academic achievement and thriving in an introductory course for STEM majors. The results concluded that women reported less belonging and less physics identity than men. Claudia Rankine’s an American Lyric chapter 7 about the nature of existence and identity connects closely with women who are in STEM. It's easy to disconnect from one's identity when confronted with workplace misogyny and prejudice. It's easy to lose sight of who you are in the pursuit of pleasing and earning a place among the males. Rankine mentions a "pain" that she can't seem to shake. The identity of a person influences and coexists with this feeling. She then analyzes how the 'self' can be fragmented; the many aspects of selfhood can make it impossible to completely embody or understand a unified, cohesive identity. Women's suffering at the hands of misogyny becomes ingrained in their identities, pushing them to find strategies to cope with the trauma while struggling with the fact that such barriers frequently play such a significant role in identity formation. Personally, I hardly face discrimination as a person of color, but as a Woman who is majoring in Information Technology, the misogyny and discrimination is astounding. Whenever I contribute to the conversation, my opinions are always brushed off. What I have to say is not important enough to the conversation. It's these little things that make me not want to contribute to the class. The same classes I would be looking forward to are now the same classes I dread. It's experiences like these that discourage young women from graduating from STEM courses.