Entrenched gendered pathways in science,technology,engineering and mathematics: Engaging girls through collaborative career development

Introduction

For more than three decades, researchers have demonstrated entrenched gendered pathways in school subject selection, secondary and tertiary fields of study, and subsequent occupational pursuits (Driessen, 1993; OECD, 2014; Watt & Eccles, 2008). Of particular concern is the underrepresentation of girls and women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields. This conceptual analysis will examine the issue from an Australian perspective: highlighting the extent of the problem, outlining foundational theory and providing suggestions to career advisers for practice and intervention.

Career advisers work with their clients in an individual and client-centred way to provide impartial advice. Focussing on a student’s gender may therefore seem contradictory to existing practice but gender clearly ‘impacts significantly upon student career aspirations and subject selection’ (Tytler, Osborne, Williams, Tytler, & Cripps Clark, 2008, p. 93). Students are ruling themselves in or out of a career in STEM before the age of 14 (Archer et al., 2013; Kiwana, Kumar, & Randerson, 2011) and far fewer girls than boys aim to pursue STEM study or careers (Watt, 2008b). Career advisers have the opportunity to open the STEM windows of possibility and present options to all their clients, but particularly to girls who are experiencing disadvantage and who are underrepresented in this area (Tytler et al., 2008).

Career guidance should ‘offer space for reflection, to enable clients to think through various aspects of their future lives that they cannot yet experience directly’ (Bassot, 2012, p. 10). Individuals from non-traditional backgrounds should be assisted through career guidance, to participate ‘in areas outside their current perspectives’ (p. 11). Therefore, targeted support of girls and women should help to increase their STEM participation (Office of the Chief Scientist, 2014). Given these perspectives, the aim of this analysis is to assist career advisers to explore STEM educational and occupational pathways with girls.

A significant caveat when exploring gender differences in any field is to acknowledge the limitations of generalising about difference. There is often more variation within groups than there is between groups (Hyde, 2014), for example there is likely to be a greater diversity of mathematics performance scores within the group of girls at a particular school than between girls and boys at the same school. Neuroscience research in the past decade has demonstrated that there are very few differences in the brains of women and men and that there are particular dangers in espousing gender differences (Derks & Krabbendam, 2013; Eliot, 2009; Fine, 2010; OECD, 2007). Despite these findings, this article will establish that various data trends and patterns are evident in the occupational choices of young women and men.

Necessary consideration at the outset should be given to the intersections of gender, ethnicity and socioeconomic status (Schunk, Pintrich, & Meece, 2008). It is important to acknowledge an individual’s sociocultural and economic background, especially in the area of career development, which is ultimately an individual pursuit. Differences between various groups reveal little ‘about the ability and potential of any individual student’ (Anderman & Anderman, 2014, p. 185). In the recommendations to career advisers, this article will examine two groups of girls who are currently the focus of the research literature: girls from low socioeconomic backgrounds and girls who are high academic performers in multiple domains. Of course these groups are not mutually exclusive.

Defining STEM and engagement

Definitions of STEM vary between institutions, governments and countries (Marginson, Tytler, Freeman, & Roberts, 2013). Debate surrounds which particular ‘sciences’ should be included in the encompassing acronym STEM. In this analysis, science fields will be treated separately because there are distinct gender preferences for specific science paths, elaborated below. The ‘technology’ in STEM refers to information technology for the purposes of this article.

Engaging girls with STEM (Tytler et al., 2008) can be defined as encouraging girls to explore the possibilities of studying physical sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics subjects while they are at school and assisting girls to see the benefits of pursuing educational and occupational pathways in these specific fields.

STEM participation in secondary school

Participation in Australian senior secondary mathematics and science has been declining for decades (Marginson et al., 2013, p. 40). Although participation rates have decreased for all students, the underrepresentation of girls is particularly bleak. An examination of participation rates for a Year 8 cohort in the state of New South Wales, Australia found in 2001 that 19.7% of boys and 16.8% of girls went on to study a mathematics/science combination in the Higher School Certificate (Mack & Walsh, 2013, p. 1). By 2011 these figures had dropped to 18.6% of boys and 13.8% of girls (p. 8). A particularly startling statistic from this report was the proportion of girls who chose to study no mathematics subjects after Year 10; the figure tripled from 7.5% in 2001 to 21.5% in 2011 (p. 9). This is concerning because mathematics is the key or ‘critical filter’ to many STEM pathways (Ma & Johnson, 2008; Sells, 1980; Shapka, Domene, & Keating, 2008). When girls opt out of mathematics in secondary school they are highly unlikely to pursue STEM in the future.

In a similar Victorian study, Cox, Leder, and Forgasz (2004, p. 27) established that a larger proportion of boys than girls studied all the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) science and mathematics subjects over the period 1994–1999, except biology and psychology. Recent data from the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (2014) confirm these gendered enrolment patterns for Victorian Year 12 students in 2013 (Figure 1). OPEN IN VIEWER

Boys completed all 2013 VCE STEM subjects in higher proportions than girls, with the exception of biology and psychology. These statistics confirm that the decades of gender entrenched subject choice at the secondary school level in Victoria (Cox et al., 2004) is still evident. Gender specific subject-choice trends are also found in other states across Australia (Ainley, Kos, & Nicholas, 2008; Barrington, 2012; Goodrum, Druhan, & Abbs, 2011).

It should be noted that STEM subject performance has often been found to be generally equivalent between comparable groups of girls and boys, particularly in mathematics. Programme for International Student Assessment data demonstrated that in 45 countries, boys and girls with similar mathematical performance had differing views about how mathematics was instrumental to their study and career plans (OECD, 2013, p. 78). There were

worrying gender differences in students’ attitudes towards mathematics: even when girls perform as well as boys in mathematics, they report less perseverance, less motivation to learn mathematics, less belief in their own mathematics skills, and higher levels of anxiety about mathematics. (p. 4)

Gender disparities in ‘drive, motivation and self-beliefs about mathematics are more pervasive and more firmly entrenched than differences in mathematics performance’ (p. 173). These disparities will be outlined further in ‘EVT and gendered aspirations’ section.

STEM interest in primary school

Although there are stark differences in subject choice and participation between girls and boys at the secondary level, these differences are apparent even in the primary years. In a literature review of STEM engagement across Australian primary and secondary schools, Tytler et al. (2008, p. 86) stated that research evidence ‘strongly supports the idea that the majority of children are making up their minds about whether to follow a STEM related career before the age of 14’. Gendered interests emerge from an early age (Hyde, 2007).

STEM post-school education participation

The choices that girls and boys make in primary school and secondary school have clear consequences for post-school study and careers. At the tertiary level, these choices become cemented; discrepancies between men’s and women’s enrolment programs are substantial (Office of the Chief Scientist, 2012, p. 10). The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported in 2010–2011, of the 2.7 million Australians ‘with higher level STEM qualifications in 2010-11, men accounted for around four-fifths (81%). This is in stark contrast to non-STEM fields, where women make up the majority (60%) of those with qualifications at the Certificate III level or above’ (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2014). In 2012, the biggest gender differences in the field of study choice post-school were in the ‘engineering and related technologies field’ (13% of men, compared with 2% of women) and the education field (5% of men, compared with 14% of women) (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2014).

Similar STEM enrolment patterns were highlighted in 2010 Australian tertiary enrolments: Vocational and Education Training STEM disciplines had 25% women, information technology in higher education had 15% women and specifically in engineering this figure was 14% women (Marginson et al., 2013, p. 17). Overall, women clearly ‘favour study and occupations in the social and health sciences, whereas men dominate the engineering and physical science occupations and related courses’ (Anlezark, Lim, Semo, & Nguyen, 2008, p. 6).

Women in STEM-related workplaces

Women continue to leave STEM in ‘unacceptably high numbers’ at the early career level (Office of the Chief Scientist, 2014, p. 21). There has been much research on why women do not remain in these male-dominated STEM workplaces. Bell, O’Halloran, Saw, and Zhao (2009) summarised the barriers to women’s participation in STEM professions into two broad categories:

First, horizontal segregation of women in the various science disciplines based on perceptions regarding women’s innate ability in science and mathematics, societal attitudes towards gender stereotypes and gender equality, and job security and employability of science graduates.

Second, vertical segregation, generated by the organisational culture of the workplace through practices that disadvantage women such as work load, promotions policies and practice, sex discrimination, lack of female role models, mentors and networks, family responsibilities and so on. (Bell et al., 2009, p. 34)

In a longitudinal study of why women changed their aspirations away from male-dominated occupational fields, Frome, Alfeld, Eccles, and Barber (2008, p. 207) found that the strongest predictor ‘was the desire for a job that allowed the flexibility for these women to have a family’.

What is the problem with individuals studying and working in areas they choose?

After decades of research on gendered pathways this fundamental question persists. This is also a highly relevant question for career advisers. Entrenched gendered careers across time are problematic for countries, workforces and for girls and women themselves. Persistent gender inequality affects women and men, as choices are narrowed and gendered career patterns are reinforced (Bell et al., 2009, p. 10). When the gender balance in STEM is aligned with the ‘real world’, then the STEM fields will be more relevant, productive, balanced, innovative and lucrative (Marginson et al., 2013, p. 139).

At the national level, we need more skilled STEM workers to meet existing and future demands. The Office of the Chief Scientist has released many reports outlining Australia’s increasing dependence on a STEM-skilled workforce. The authors call for a renewed focus on STEM and urge the public and private sectors, as well as all levels of government, to act with vigour so that Australia is not left behind; ‘the world’s dependence on knowledge and innovation will grow and not diminish and to be ahead in the race, a community needs the skills to anticipate rather than follow’ (Office of the Chief Scientist, 2012, p. 6). Therefore, women are a target group because they are currently underutilised STEM labour. Given that Australian women’s participation in STEM has remained low for at least two decades, there is a strong case to be made for ‘re-invigorating the agenda on women in STEM’ (Marginson et al., 2013, p. 24).

There is also a social justice perspective; the ‘association of high-status, high-salary careers with advanced participation in the STEM disciplines has continued to fuel the concern of researchers with an interest in gender equity’ (Watt, 2008a, p. 5). Graduate Careers Australia analysed the gender wage gap in the Australian graduate labour market. The report concluded that the much of the wage gap in starting salaries could be explained by gender differences in education subject choice, which then resulted in an occupationally segregated workforce (Graduate Careers Australia, 2014, p. 12). Anlezark et al. (2008, p. 5) also found substantial wage benefits from pursuing a STEM career: ‘at 24 years, those who work in STEM occupations earn on average over $100 per week [more] than those who are employed in non-STEM occupations’.

There is a greater proportion of men in STEM occupations and these jobs pay more and are higher in status, particularly compared to the jobs where women predominate; the ‘nurturing’ and ‘helping’ occupations of nursing, education, allied health, counselling, and primary care of children, the elderly and disabled. This is not to say that women do not seek high status jobs. In a study of occupational aspirations and expectations of Australian adolescents, Patton and Creed (2007, p. 51) found that even though girls aspired to ‘investigative, artistic and social occupations’ they did not differ from boys in the status of their occupational aspirations and expectations.

Finally, girls and women who select non-STEM study and careers may be limiting their personal creativity and productivity. Girls restrict their career options very early on by choosing not to study mathematics – the critical filter to STEM study and occupations (Sells, 1980). Boys do not make the same choices. Although the issue is complex and multi-layered, the ‘choice’ to pursue STEM versus non-STEM is not made from an equitable starting point. Girls are not completely free to choose whether they want to pursue STEM (Stout, Dasgupta, Hunsinger, & McManus, 2011, p. 269). Rather, a girl’s choice of study field and career is constrained by a variety of sociocultural and contextual factors which affect her STEM competence beliefs and subjective task values (Wang & Degol, 2013). Individual educational and occupational pathways are influenced by a host of values, expectations, choices and achievements, which are best described using Eccles and colleagues’ expectancy-value theory (EVT) (1983; Eccles, 2009).

EVT and gendered aspirations

Developed in 1983, Eccles’ et al.’s EVT was initially created to help explain gender differences in mathematics expectancies and values and how these influenced girls’ and boys’ choices of mathematics courses. It is revealing that gendered enrolments were as topical in the 1980s as they are today – clearly not enough has changed. EVT focuses on the role of individuals’ expectancies for academic success, their perceived value for specific achievement tasks and their choices of which subjects and careers to pursue.

There are two broad branches of the EVT which shape an individual’s motivation, performance and choices: the expectancy branch and the values branch. These branches intertwine and cross in multiple places. An individual’s expectancies of success and the value s/he places on specific tasks influences her/his performance and task choice directly (Wigfield & Eccles, 2002). The expectancy-value model is extensive and has been validated through an enormous body of research, which is ongoing.

Overall, this research has found: (a) that ‘students with positive self-perceptions of their competence and positive expectancies of success are more likely to perform better, learn more, and engage … on academic tasks by exerting more effort, persisting longer, and demonstrating more cognitive engagement’ (Schunk et al., 2008, p. 66), and (b) that students who value and are interested in domain-specific tasks (such as mathematics) are more likely to perform better on those tasks, learn more and be engaged with those tasks, and chose similar tasks in future (p. 66). The unequal representation of men and women in certain STEM fields is posited to be the result of gendered differences in these motivational beliefs.

With regard to findings on STEM gender differences using the comprehensive EVT, Eccles (2011, p. 195) recently summarised research conclusions:

Gender differences and individual differences within each gender in educational and occupational choices are linked to differences in individuals’ expectations for success and subjective task value. With regard to the gender difference in the occupations linked to math and physical science in particular, females are less likely to enter these fields than males both because they have less confidence in their math and physical science abilities and because they place less subjective value on these fields than they place on other possible occupational niches. Furthermore, gendered socialization practices at home, in the schools, and among peers play a major role in shaping these individual differences in self-perceptions and subjective task values.

A case illustration of EVT

Stacey is in Year 10 at her local coeducational high school, which is located in a low socioeconomic area in the outer suburbs. Her parents own a small business and her brother has just completed school and started a trade apprenticeship. None of her immediate family has been to university.

The time has come to select subjects for Years 11 and 12, which means Stacey must decide what she wants to ‘do’ and ‘be’ after school. She has enjoyed science at school and chosen science electives wherever possible. Although these courses have been a mix of science disciplines, Stacey performed particularly well in the chemistry units. She likes the models of chemicals, the reactions, and using the new computer program the school purchased to build interactive 3D models. She also really enjoys and is especially good at History.

Stacey knows that if she chooses chemistry in Year 11 and 12, none of her friends will be studying it. She also knows of only one other girl who will be studying chemistry. Her Year 10 science teacher is encouraging Stacey to select chemistry in Year 11 and 12, and even think about studying chemistry after school.

Other motivational research on gender and STEM in Australia

EVT has shed much light on gendered pathways and gender disparities in the STEM fields, particularly when longitudinal studies have been employed. In a longitudinal study, Watt (2008b) studied Years 7–11 secondary school participants from Sydney and found ‘robust gender differences’: boys planned and undertook higher levels of mathematics in secondary school; they also planned to pursue mathematics-related careers (p. 106). Girls aspired to more ‘English related’ careers. These ‘gendered educational and occupational choices were substantially explained by adolescents' motivations over and above their levels of math and English achievement’ (p. 106).

Gendered pathways in science were also examined using Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth data from the 2006 cohort. Sikora (2014) found that men were five times more likely than women to study a post-school physical science qualification. The gender gap ‘evident in occupational aspirations is largely reproduced in the choice of science subjects in Year 12 and then it is not only reproduced but even enhanced in the choices of post-secondary fields of study’ (Sikora, 2014, p. 21).

Which girls? Sociocultural and contextual factors

Strategies to reduce gender-related disadvantage must focus on the individual. The Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies recommended continual monitoring and evaluation of STEM strategies in schools on gendered participation, with a ‘renewed emphasis’ on the question ‘Which girls?’ (Bell et al., 2009, p. 59). This question aligns neatly for career advisers who are cognisant of the backgrounds and sociocultural influences of their clients.

Girls comprise roughly half of each coeducational school student population. Each girl comes with a particular cultural and socioeconomic history. Research on gender disparities in STEM fields has tended to focus on girls as a group, although there is recognition that women belong to other groups and ‘targeted support’ is necessary ‘to increase the STEM participation of women, disadvantaged and marginalised students, including Indigenous students’ (Office of the Chief Scientist, 2014, p. 24). This is an area that requires more research, as acknowledged by Ceci, Williams, and Barnett (2009, p. 226) who stated that ‘cultural and sociodemographic differences suggest that culture may play a major, though poorly understood, role in creating proximal differences that lead to differences in STEM fields’.

Clearly not every girl wants to pursue mathematics, physics and information technology but career advisers do have a vital role to play. In an article on emancipatory career guidance practice, Bassot (2012, p. 11) called for career advisers to ‘encourage and support individual agents to take up opportunities to participate in activity systems’. Activity systems may be organisations or institutions, such as employment, education and training which are embedded in culture. Girls and women are often locked out of STEM activity systems, therefore emancipatory career guidance practice can enable ‘equality and social justice to move towards becoming a reality’ (p. 11). Emancipatory career guidance practice seems particularly apt when considering the social justice and equality aspect of girls’ and women’s under-participation in specific STEM fields.

Recommendations to career advisers: Engaging girls in STEM

The evidence from the research outlined, and from other reports and studies, suggests that it is girls’ motivation and engagement with STEM which must be tackled by educators, researchers, parents and career advisers at the individual level. Career advice and ongoing career development is critical in reducing STEM gender disparity. Recommendations to career advisers are remarkably uniform and fit into several categories.

The first step for career advisers in assisting girls to explore STEM pathways is to understand the extent of the problem. Second, career advisers need to be informed about the diversity of STEM fields of study, STEM professions and career pathways (Marginson et al., 2013). Finally, career development should embrace a range of practices and interventions that focus on instilling in girls the notion that there are few limits to their career pursuits, so that girls and women with ‘burgeoning STEM interests may be more motivated to choose and stay within these fields’ (Wang & Degol, 2013, p. 329). These interventions and practices are outlined in eight recommendations.

Start STEM specific career development early:

Australia’s National Career Development Strategy (Department of Education Employment and Workplace Relations, 2012) stated that Australians should be equipped to make decisions about their careers and that the development of such skills can start from early primary school to ‘lay down early foundations’ (p. 9). Many researchers have echoed this sentiment. There is a substantial decline in girls’ commitment to science and mathematics between the middle primary years and the end of secondary school (Marginson et al., 2013; Tytler et al., 2008). This means a majority of girls have already decided not to pursue educational or occupational paths that involve the study of physical science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Traditionally career advisers in schools concentrate their efforts on students from Years 9 to 12, but this focus needs to be broadened to capture primary school girls before they disengage. In an Australian study, McMahon, Carroll, and Gillies (2001) examined the occupational aspirations of sixth-grade children and found strong gender differences. They concluded that children of this age had given thought to their occupational aspirations but that career education had not been ‘meaningfully addressed in primary schools’ (p. 31). Career development professionals need to advocate for career education in primary schools and to help address stereotypical and gendered thinking about occupations at the primary level. Promoting STEM careers and STEM opportunities to children can start very early in their schooling. There is also a need for much more STEM career information throughout a child’s entire school education (Anlezark et al., 2008, p. 7).

Collaborate with people of influence:

An important factor for young people in their decision to study STEM post-school is the influence of others (Anlezark et al., 2008). However, in a hierarchy of influence, career advisers were at the bottom and teachers and then parents were perceived as being the most important influencers (p. 25). Lyons et al. (2012) also contend that career advisers have less influence than teachers, parents, friends and siblings on students’ decisions to pursue STEM or non-STEM paths.

Rather than despairing at this relative lack of influence, career advisers need to join forces with people who are influential in the development of girls’ careers. In school settings, it is critical that career advisers collaborate with teachers and educators to assist girls to explore STEM. A particular focus of this collaboration should be to ‘send accurate signals about the value of mathematics’ to girls (Office of the Chief Scientist, 2012). Clearly, schools that have more integrated support systems to assist with STEM career decision making mean that students are less likely to look elsewhere for advice (Tytler et al., 2008, p. 120).

Flood the school with a diversity of STEM images:

Many girls still do not have a realistic picture about what a STEM professional actually does. Men who are scientists in white lab coats, or computer geeks, or engineers in high-visibility vests are common images in society and in children’s minds. There is a need for a diversity of images of STEM professionals, for example on career posters, in publications and online resources. Career advice that includes images of women and men of all ages, from various ethnic backgrounds working in STEM-related careers is a key strategy in building awareness and shifting attitudes in young people (Marginson et al., 2013, p. 21). The presentation of ‘stories of people working in STEM and an understanding of who STEM workers are, and what STEM workers do’ needs particular reinforcement for girls (Tytler et al., 2008, p. 125).

Use role models and mentors to develop in-school programs:

Students need to interact with practising women STEM professionals. Bringing together young women and successful STEM professionals (including scientists, engineers, mathematicians and computing specialists) provides an authentic understanding of STEM careers. Such contact with STEM role models could start as early as primary level schooling and continue through school and early career training.

Role models assist girls to see the diversity of options in STEM careers. They also convey the message that STEM professionals help people and have a beneficial impact on society (Wang & Degol, 2013, p. 328). For this reason it would be wise to ensure that the STEM role models chosen are engaging, interesting and stimulating women whom girls can relate to. Role models must also have succeeded in non-traditional work roles, so that they can assist girls to explore opportunities in similar non-traditional occupational roles (Cassie & Chen, 2012, p. 10).

STEM role models increase the visibility of a critical mass of women and can have a profound positive effect on young women’s STEM self-perceptions (Stout et al., 2011, p. 269). Seeing ‘other successful women in STEM promises to free young women in the present generation from a societally constrained view of their abilities’ (p. 269).

Career advisers can readily access STEM role models for the girls in their schools. A number of organisations send visiting speakers to schools. Forming a specific connection with a university or organisation such as the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation could also provide multiple points of access to women role models. Combining role models with mentors produces even better outcomes for girls. While role models are often used for single exposure, for example Grade 2 girls spending an afternoon with a woman engineer, mentors can be involved over time.

STEM mentors need repeated access to girls, perhaps over the period of a term or semester. Mentors may not necessarily have completed their STEM degrees, unlike role models who are successful examples of what women can achieve in their field. Mentors can be employed in a variety of ways. Senior secondary girls who are already studying physics, information technology and high-level mathematics could spend time with junior secondary or primary girls and discuss why they are studying these subjects and the benefits of such choices. Women studying STEM in the tertiary sector could return to their school and spend time with students.

An example of a successful STEM role-model program was conducted at a Norwegian University, which ran a 2-day ‘recruitment event’ for secondary school girls (Jensen & Bøe, 2013). The event ‘influenced the participants’ STEM motivations by affecting their expectation of success and subjective value of STEM tertiary education’ (p. 317).

There is also some evidence to suggest that girls’ only mentor programs are especially effective at engaging girls with STEM (Lyons et al., 2012; McMahon, Limerick, & Gillies, 2002). A number of successful Australian mentor programs, such as Robogals and the Digital Divas Club, use women university mentors to assist secondary school girls to explore engineering and information technology. Mentors normalise perceptions of women in STEM, they provide a link between what happens in the classroom and what happens in ‘real life’, they dispel myths and stereotypes (Digital Divas Club, 2012). One of the most successful and appealing parts of the Digital Divas Club was that the program was girls’ only, which allowed for ‘broader participation and learning than a coeducational class could deliver’ (p. 23). The participants in the program did not feel intimidated by boys or feel that they had to compete with ‘tech-savvy boys’ (p. 23).

Using role models and mentors to develop school-based programs can form part of an integrated curriculum ‘which encourages female students to engage in a broader range of activities in order to develop their skills in areas other than traditionally female ones’ (Wheelahan & Knowles, 1993, p. 22). It is here that career advisers must work closely with teachers and staff members to integrate STEM inspiring services for girls across the primary and secondary school. School programs should be sustainable over the long term, take place well before girls have to select their Years 11 and 12 subjects and be thoroughly evaluated.

Promote targeted work experience and out-of-school programs:

In addition to school programs, STEM work experience placements can be particularly powerful and engaging experiences for girls. A study of Australian senior secondary students who had participated in work experience reported that participants had a better understanding of the educational pathways to specific occupations (Beavis, Curtis, & Curtis, 2005, p. 36). In other research with Australian first-year tertiary STEM students, 95% stated that work experience was the most encouraging experience for their decision to pursue STEM study (Lyons et al., 2012, p. viii). Career advisers in schools could certainly seek individual girls with an aptitude for STEM and support specific work experience placements or internships.

Girls should also have the opportunity to experience STEM outside the school walls. The success of work experience placements may largely lie in the fact that students experience the daily routines and tasks of a specific occupation, they experience workplace cultures and gain a first-hand understanding of these jobs. Ongoing school partnerships with STEM industry, businesses and universities could form part of a suite of initiatives which integrate STEM engagement for girls across their schooling.

Engage with parents and families:

Parents and families clearly affect the study and occupational choices of children and adolescents, and as such they need to be included in STEM engagement initiatives for girls. Unfortunately, parental influence can either be a help or hindrance to this cause. For example, ‘differential parental beliefs, expectations, and treatment of sons and daughters may promote a gender divide in math and science motivational beliefs’ (Wang & Degol, 2013, p. 318). Using a longitudinal study, Chhin, Bleeker, and Jacobs (2008, p. 228) found that ‘parents’ beliefs and expectations reported when their children were adolescents play an important role in shaping their children’s gender-typed occupational choices during young adulthood’. Therefore, in order to increase the number of women in STEM, parents need to be educated about ‘the important part that gender role attitudes and expectations can play in students’ future career choices’ (p. 232).

STEM intervention programs targeting parents do work. Harackiewicz, Rozek, Hulleman, and Hyde (2012) conducted a STEM intervention that was designed to help parents convey the importance of mathematics and science courses to their adolescent children. Students whose parents were in the experimental group completed on average, nearly one semester more of science and mathematics in the last 2 years of high school. The researchers concluded that ‘parents are an untapped resource for increasing STEM motivation in adolescents’. Therefore, interventions with parents can ‘produce significant changes in their children’s academic choices’ (p. 905).

Families should be provided with information about productive futures in STEM professions. This could be done through the provision of resources to parents or specific programs organised by the school, such as ‘family mathematics’ and ‘family science’ activities (Marginson et al., 2013, p. 89). Online resources could also be utilised, for providing useful, reliable, accessible and current advice on STEM courses and careers (Harackiewicz et al., 2012; Lyons et al., 2012). Whatever the method, career advisers need to work with parents across all stages and ages of their child’s career development.

Targeting specific groups: girls experiencing disadvantage and high-performing girls:

Current research has examined how to engage specific groups of girls in the STEM fields: girls experiencing disadvantage and high-performing girls. Of course the girls in these groups are not mutually exclusive and the aforementioned group difference caveat is particularly important for this recommendation.

The Smith Family is a children’s charity helping Australian children experiencing disadvantage by creating opportunities and long-term support for their participation in education. Researchers from this organisation examined the challenges faced by students from low socioeconomic and financially disadvantaged backgrounds in making successful post-school transitions (Bryce, Anderson, Frigo, & McKenzie, 2007). In general, students in this study had no familiarity with university environments, they found the array of tertiary courses confusing, had non-linear pathways and their families did not engage with schools to provide guidance for their children (p. 34). Study participants also did not ‘know about the relative availability of different types of work, nor understand the education and training required for jobs that interest them’ (Beavis et al., 2005, p. 36). The Smith Family established a one-on-one mentor program for participants where businesses provided mentors and career counselling to students which emphasised realistic connections between students’ interests, abilities and the work force (Beavis, Murphy, Bryce, & Corrigan, 2004, p. 10). This program was highly successful but confirmed that ‘family members and school career advisers are not always in themselves sufficient or approachable resources for students looking to negotiate their post-school plans’ (The Smith Family, 2007, p. 2).

This research illustrates that adolescents from low socioeconomic families may require targeted career development advice. Girls from lower socioeconomic backgrounds do not have the same resources and connections with STEM professionals that more privileged girls may have (Marginson et al., 2013), therefore career advisers need to provide even more assistance in building awareness of STEM disciplines and career pathways for these girls. In the landmark Women in science in Australia report, Bell et al. (2009, p. 10) argued that there were strong imperatives to focus on girls experiencing the greatest disadvantage ‘in terms of equity and social inclusion’ in the STEM disciplines. One strategy for promoting STEM to lower socioeconomic girls could be to highlight the financial security and stability of these fields (Wang & Degol, 2013, p. 318).

High-performing girls should also be particularly targeted for STEM career development advice. It is strong academic students who form the ‘major labour supply for STEM occupations’, therefore it may be possible for more of these high achievers to be shown the options of a career in STEM ‘to help meet the demand of future STEM employers’ (Anlezark et al., 2008, p. 6). Another approach is to broaden and deepen STEM engagement; broadening by increasing the number of students who engage with STEM and deepening by assisting ‘high achieving students to shift from higher education programs in business and law, to science, mathematics and engineering’ (Marginson et al., 2013, p. 69).

Mathematically competent girls are also disproportionately more likely to have high verbal competence, allowing for greater choice of field of study and career selection (Ceci et al., 2009, p. 251). If high-achieving girls are more likely to perform well in multiple domains, they are also ‘more likely to choose careers outside of STEM fields because their high skill levels provide them with more career options’ (Wang & Degol, 2013, p. 310). This is particularly salient information for career advisers because it is the high-achieving girls who are most suited to the STEM professions (Office of the Chief Scientist, 2012). Therefore, targeted career development advice for high-achieving girls could emphasise the variety of STEM occupations, and that women in these professions use a range of skills in their everyday jobs. Encouraging more young Australian girls to aspire to STEM study and occupations is eminently worthwhile because ‘learning in those fields is economically and socially useful, and intrinsically worthwhile, and a powerful intellectual formation that can be foundational to many different kinds of individual achievement’ (Marginson et al., 2013, p. 69).

Press for change in male-dominated workplaces:

Clearly STEM workplaces must act to attract and keep women in the STEM professions. Career advisers should not shy away from sharing with girls how working in male-dominated workplaces, such as in engineering firms, can be challenging. With STEM on the national agenda in many developed countries, it is promising that previous issues of workplace discrimination and harassment for women are waning in these environments.

All members of society should press workplaces to ‘provide child care and a flexible working schedule without compromising other benefits or promotions (and encourage fathers to take advantage of these opportunities)’ (Frome et al., 2008, p. 209). Bell et al. (2009) recommends that society addresses the ‘mechanisms that will enable women to “thrive and excel”, not just “survive”, in science and technology careers, including supporting flexible, non-traditional career paths’.

Conclusions

The persistent underrepresentation of girls and women in STEM highlights the broader issue of entrenched gendered pathways, which have been prevalent in Australia and many other countries for decades. It is simplistic to dismiss this gender inequity as just a consequence of educational and occupational ‘choices’. The EVT has provided foundational research which stresses the fact that girls and women need extra guidance and assistance to engage with STEM and to remain in STEM professions.

Career advisers are centrally placed to assist girls to explore STEM educational and occupational pathways. The recommendations outlined are intended to promote innovative career practice in response to this issue. Is it acceptable in Australia in 2014 to have so few girls studying higher level mathematics, physics and information technology at school? Is it acceptable for these girls to then embark on predominantly lower paid, lower status non-STEM jobs while organisations and governments cry out for STEM-skilled professionals? Will these gendered pathway patterns remain entrenched for another decade or more? Engaging girls and their parents in STEM while they are in primary school, providing STEM mentors and role models, providing realistic pictures and possibilities about STEM educational and occupational pathways is vital and valuable work.