Census Data Shows Need for Further Efforts to Attract Women Into STEM Fields

New data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows the necessity of increasing efforts to increase the number of women who study in STEM fields at American colleges and universities. The data shows that while women are 47.5 percent of all employed workers, they make up only 25.8 percent of all employees in STEM occupations.

There are many STEM occupations where women are a very small percentage of all workers. According to Census data, women are 11.4 percent of all computer network architects, 11.3 percent of aerospace engineers, 8.1 percent of agricultural engineers, and 8.8 percent of electrical and electronic engineers. Occupations were women are an even smaller percentage of all workers are mechanical engineers (6.3 percent) and mining and geological engineers (6.7 percent).