According to a new Pew survey, a staggering 50 percent of all women who are working in STEM jobs are facing discrimination in the workplace.
STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and math, and it’s a broad category that encompasses many general industries.
The survey looked at 4,914 adult workers in total, all within the United States. A full 2,344 of them had careers in STEM fields.
This is by no means to say that nonSTEM workers don’t also face discrimination based on their gender. Those in other fields reported the same thing at a rate of 41 percent. It’s just that, at 50 percent, the STEM field was the worst that the study found.
Harassment claims, interestingly enough, were about the same in both fields. They came in at 22 percent for those in both STEM and nonSTEM jobs.
That said, it is interesting to note that many men in STEM fields did not think sexual harassment was an issue in their workplaces. Only 28 percent of them identified it as an issue, whereas 36 percent of female workers said it was a problem.
The fact that there is a disconnect between the genders could show that they do not agree on what constitutes sexual harassment, which may shed light on why it continues to happen year after year.
The study also uncovered overall issues with diversity in the workplace, with 62 percent of African-Americans reporting discrimination. This was compared to 44 percent of Asian workers and 42 percent of workers with a Hispanic heritage.
It’s clear that discrimination is still an issue on many levels, which is why it’s important for workers in the STEM field to know all of the legal rights that they have.
Source: CNET, “Half of women in STEM jobs experience discrimination, says Pew,” Erin Carson, Jan. 09, 2018