If you listen to politicians and tech leaders, the country is in dire need of more people trained in science, technology, engineering and math.
Students appear to be responding somewhat to this message, according to a new study from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.
Twenty-six percent of all bachelor s earned by men and 12 percent earned by women were in hard sciences in 2014, up from 24 percent and 11 percent respectively in 2004. (I am excluding social sciences and psychology, which are in green in the chart above).
When it came to the master s level, women s progress remained flat and men s increased one percentage point. At the doctorate level, 48 percent of degrees earned by men were in the hard sciences, up three percentage points from 2004. Women increased one percentage point to 21 percent.
But when it came to one specific degree — computer science bachelors — women lost ground. In 2014, 18 percent of all bachelor s degrees awarded to women were in computer science, down from 23 percent in 2004, noted the Wall Street Journal.
Doug Shapiro, executive research director of the center, told the Journal that over the period studied, women s enrollment in computer science dropped in the early years and then flattened out. He added:
There s been a lot of attention in computer science departments about how we can attract more women. The fact that that number has not budged [in recent years] is disappointing.
Above: Chart from the study by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.
