A new report from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commissions examines the employment of women in STEM jobs in the federal government.
The main findings from the report include:
- Overall, women accounted for 29.3 percent of STEM federal workers.
- Science occupations had the most women (49,546), while math occupations in the federal sector had the fewest number of women (6,469). Women held less than 6 percent of all positions relating to mathematics.
- A total of 16,454 women served in leadership roles, compared to 47,167 men. Only 25.9 percent of all STEM leaders were women.
- Women were paid, on average, more than $4,300 less than men in all STEM jobs. Women in science, engineering, and math had lower pay than men but women were paid more than men in technology jobs.
- In fiscal year 2019, there were 34,483 women counseled and 14,096 female federal employees who decided to file formal complaints.
- Despite the popular belief that sexual harassment is the foremost type of discrimination raised by women, generalized harassment was a larger issue — with 1,986 complaints filed, compared to 358 complaints for sexual harassment.
- More than 42 percent of Black workers in government STEM jobs were women. For Whites, 27.4 percent of all STEM workers were women
“There were significantly fewer women in technology and engineering than we expected. Clearly, the federal government shares the same challenges as the private sector in improving representation of women in STEM occupations,” said Carlton Hadden, director of the EEOC’s Office of Federal Operations. “We hope this report helps federal agencies better understand the challenges facing women in STEM so they can continue to foster an even more welcoming and diverse work environment.”
The full report, Annual Report on the Federal Workforce – Special Topic: Women in STEM, can be downloaded here.