Using the National Center for Education Statistics, we analyzed both the percentage of computer science bachelor’s degrees earned by women and the total number of bachelor’s degrees earned by women between 1970 and 2017. The interactive graph below shows the fairly rapid percentage growth of women earning degrees between 1970 and 1983, as well as the steady decline of degrees earned between 1984 and 2015. Additionally, the number of computer science undergraduate degrees earned by women has only increased by 2.65% between 2002 and 2017.
On the other hand, our research found that female enrollment within computer science undergraduate and graduate programs has increased in recent years. In fact, there was a 74.9% increase in female enrollment in computer science bachelor’s programs between 2012 and 2018 and a 141.4% increase in female enrollment in computer science master’s programs during the same time frame. This spike bodes well for a wave of new Millennial and Gen Z-aged women entering the computer science and technology workforce.
The map below shows the U.S. hubs for women in STEM, based on the number of career opportunities available for female graduates in tech and data from the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics.
Next, we analyzed data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to determine the percentages of both male and female employment within specific computer science occupations in the U.S. Our research found that overall, total female employment in all computer science occupations is growing. However, the rate of growth within certain occupations has declined somewhat between 2015 and 2019. For instance, while the number of female web developers grew by 18.2% between 2018 and 2019, the number of female software developers only grew by 4.6% that same year, down from a 13% growth rate the previous year.
In 2019, the employment disparity between men and women was the highest within software development and coding roles, where men made up 81.3% of all software developers employed in the U.S.
Lastly, we studied the demographic characteristics of women employed in the STEM workforce and found that over 53% of female STEM employees do not have children, which isn’t surprising given that the technology sector has not always had flexible maternity leave options. Additionally, we found that the majority of females working in STEM, 32%, are between the ages of 50 and 75, indicating that the female workforce within this sector is aging – another factor influencing the encouragement of higher female enrollment within computer science bachelor’s degree programs.
Check out the infographic below for more eye-opening insights found during our study.
