Does the world need more cowboys?

The University of Wyoming routinely awards more degrees of all levels (bachelors, masters and doctoral) to women, though in STEM fields women graduates are dramatically underrepresented. Based on student statistics provided by the Office of Institutional Analysis and professor statistics published by each departments websites, I have analyzed graduation rates from 2006 through 2017, and professor statistics as published in Spring 2018.

STEM fields (those involved in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) encompass a multitude of different academic majors which the U.S. Department of Education classifies into “the core occupations, professional and technical support occupations in the fields of computer science and mathematics, engineering, and life and physical sciences.”1 This list categorizes STEM fields into 56 occupation codes (as classified by the Standard Occupational Classification, SOC) which encompass the Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Engineering, Mathematics and Statistics and the Physical Sciences.2 This classification excludes STEM educators and social sciences due to data limitations; other sources used in the present work include either or both of these groups in their analyses, but this study will focus on only the core 56 occupations. At the University of Wyoming, the degrees that fall into these categories include Math, Biology, Botany, Chemistry, Geology/Geophysics, Physics/Astronomy, Zoology/Physiology, Statistics, Chemical Engineering, Civil and Architectural Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Petroleum Engineering, Molecular Biology and Microbiology.

As shown in Figure 1, graduation rates have been steadily increasing in both overall degrees as well as STEM degrees, though because graduation rates are increasing at a similar rate for both males and females, the gap is not closing.

Figure 1.

When looking at all STEM fields over the three colleges, as shown in Figure 2, it is clear that the College of Engineering is falling dramatically behind both the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. In order to minimize scatter, I calculated the four-year rolling average from 2006 to 2017 which shows what any student in the specified college would see at any given point during their college career. This emphasizes the lack of progress of all three of the colleges in regard to increasing female graduation rates, despite individual year spikes.

Figure 2.

We were then able to recategorize our STEM fields into national comparisons, sorting the Engineering fields from Mathematics (Mathematics and Statistics), Physical Sciences (Chemistry, Geology/Geophysics, Physics, Astronomy/Astrophysics) and Biological Sciences (Biology, Botany, Microbiology, Molecular Biology, Zoology and Physiology). This separation is in order to accurately compare our university to national levels, as shown in Figure 3, the statistics and the four-year rolling average of those programs. As compared to the 2016 Statistics published by the National Girls Collaborative Project, funded by the National Science Foundation, our university still falls short of national averages. This data shows an average of 19.3% in Engineering, 43.1% in Mathematics, 39% in Physical Sciences and 55% in Biological Sciences. Our university in comparison averages 17% in Engineering, 32% in Mathematics, 29% in Physical Sciences and 56% in Biological Sciences. This means we are below national averages in all STEM fields except for the Biological Sciences. It is also important to note in regard to all university statistics that we were unable to receive data on the computer science program at the University of Wyoming from the Office of Institutional Analysis, which is also a largely male field, which would even further skew statistics.

Figure 3.

When broken down by colleges and individual degree programs, it is clear which areas are even more so disproportionately impacting women at the University of Wyoming. As shown in Figure 2, the College of Engineering has a very apparent gender gap, with some specific degree programs routinely underperforming in even engineering standards. While architectural engineering has a relatively large percentage of women, hovering around 30%, other programs like Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Petroleum Engineering and Mechanical Engineering routinely have a female percentage of less than 20%.

The college of Agriculture and Natural Resources, housing the Microbiology and Molecular Biology degrees, has a much more even gender distribution. On average, the Microbiology program graduates 60% female students and Molecular Biology graduates on average 45% female students. These two degrees, however, are nationally very dominated by women, so an average of 45% is still below most standards.

Data regarding the College of Arts and Sciences has been separated into two separate data groups, one being the large graduate cohorts and the small graduate cohorts. This is because certain specific degree programs, including Astronomy/Astrophysics, Botany, Statistics and Physics/Physics Plus graduate less than 5 people total per academic year, which skews statistical data from having too small of a sample size, in comparison to graduates from other degree programs. As you can see in Figure 3, the University of Wyoming graduation rates mimic many found nationally, with Biology and Zoology/Physiology being between 45% and 70% female and with the physical sciences (Chemistry, Mathematics, Geology/Geophysics/Natural Sciences) averaging 45%, 35%, and 30% female respectively.

Figure 4.

In regard to both master’s and doctorate programs in STEM fields, the averages hold true when compared to undergraduate degrees. While at the University of Wyoming women receive on average 60% of master’s degrees, they receive only 35% of STEM related master’s degrees, as shown in Figure 5. Doctorate degrees follow a slightly more varied but still similar trend, graduating on average 40% women, though only 25% women in STEM fields.

Figure 5.

While these statistics do not seem promising, it is absolutely pertinent for a University to understand how their current statistics stand in order to see how much progress they can make. With the recent founding of multiple Women in STEM programs on the University of Wyoming campus, as well as the increased access to information for the faculty, I am confident that we will see a change in the upcoming decade.

To read more about the Gender in STEM Gap at the University of Wyoming, see the article series here.