Currently, women are the majority of students enrolled in college overall; however, they lag behind in several fields, usually STEM related, and in those earning graduate degrees. This is no different at the University of Minnesota, or in CEMS specifically. Female identifying students made up only 33% of the undergraduate population and 25% of the graduate population in CEMS in Fall 2018.  As the level of education increases, the disparity across genders worsens to the point where women only make up 15% of the CEMS Faculty as of Fall 2020. Across the country, women professors earn less, hold lower ranking positions, and are less likely to have tenure. While women make up more than 50% of the lecturers and instructors, they comprise 36% of associate professors and only 21% of full professors. Only 2.4% of full professors are women of color. Understanding these disparities and the underlying factors as to why they occur is crucial for the advancement of gender equity.

GIVE | GREEN GIRLS STEM FOUNDATION

Green Girls STEM Foundation is a nonprofit corporation whose goals are specifically to support and encourage kids (especially girls) to participate in STEM activities, increase the number of girls and young women in STEM, and expose kids to STEM related activities to encourage them to pursue STEM degrees and careers in the future.

Dr. Roberta Sinatra

LEARN | STUDY: GENDER INEQUALITY PERSISTS IN SCIENCE CAREERS AND PUBLISHING

Lois Elfman discusses a 2017 PNAS article where four scientists, Dr. Albert-László Barabási, Dr. Alexander J. Gates, Dr. Roberta Sinatra, and Dr. Junming Huang, examine gender differences in scientific disciplines in academia across the world. They had seen evidence that female scientists publish fewer articles throughout their careers and their work receives fewer citations. To build a comprehensive picture, they analyze data from 60 years of academic publishing.