A new report from the Pew Research Center finds that half of all women who have jobs in STEM-related fields report that they have experienced gender discrimination in the workplace. More than three quarters of women who work in STEM fields at places where men are a majority of the workforce say they have faced gender discrimination. Some 74 percent of women in computer-related occupations reported that they had faced discrimination based on their gender.
Some of the common types of discrimination faced by women in STEM-related occupations were sexual harassment, unequal pay, and being treated as if they are not competent.
The authors of the report state that “for women working in science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) jobs, the workplace is a different, sometimes more hostile environment than the one their male coworkers experience. Discrimination and sexual harassment are seen as more frequent, and gender is perceived as more of an impediment than an advantage to career success.”
The full report, Women and Men in STEM Often at Odds on Workplace Equity, may be downloaded by clicking here.