9. Losing Ground but Not Value

The decline of the proportion of graduated women in STEM in Central Asia is reflected by the diminution of women in technical occupations which is observed in three out of four countries. In Georgia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, it has dropped by 5 % over the past 10 years. The proportion of women in industrial or technical sector has decreased over the past 5 years. For instance, the percentage of women working in construction has dropped in three of the four countries. This diminution reaches 5 % both in Kazakhstan and Mongolia. Overall the gender gap in remuneration between men and women has increased. It reaches 44 % in Kazakhstan, and 37 % in Kyrgyzstan, but is limited to 18 % in Mongolia. This doesn’t apply to women working in industrial, scientific or technical activities who benefit from a lower gender gap observed across all sectors at the national level.

The lower proportion of women having chosen STEM studies over the past 10 years in Latin America is reflected by the lower proportion of women among technicians and associate professionals. In the two largest countries, Brazil and Mexico, it is below 50 %, respectively, 45 % and 29.6 %. Among the countries for which the analysis is conducted this year, only Venezuela stands out with a majority of women in these activities: 66 %. Interestingly, Venezuela is also the country in Latin America with the highest proportion of graduated women in engineering/manufacturing/construction (39 % in 2013) and more than 50 % of graduated women in science. In the two countries where data is available over the past 5 years, a decrease in the feminization of jobs related to research and application of scientific and operational methods can be observed (for instance, in Brazil, the proportion of women in these jobs has dropped from 47.4 % in 2005 to 45 % in 2013). The gender gap in remuneration is higher than the national average in mining, reaching up to 109 % for manufacturing in Brazil. Conversely, construction seems to be one of the few sectors where gender gap between men and women is lower than the gender gap observed on average at the national level.

The proportion of women who graduated in STEM in European countries is partially reflected by the proportion of women among scientists and engineers; the average proportion of women in these jobs is of 40 % at EU level, which is less than what has been observed in Eastern European countries: 46 %. Some decreases confirm the impact of reduction of women studying in these fields. For instance, the 7 % reduction of proportion of women among manufacturing graduates is reflected by the 2 % diminution of share of women working in the manufacturing sector, similarly the 26 % drop of women studying computing is consistent with the 7 % decrease of women employed in ICT. Overall there tends to be less difference of remuneration between men and women in most technical and scientific sectors than what has been observed in other regions, with the exception of professional scientific and technical activities where the gender gap tends to be higher in most countries in proportion which are often superior to 50 %. The countries where the difference is the highest are Austria where it reaches 97 % and the Netherlands with an 82 % difference.