Study: More Girls Want STEM Careers Than Boys

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When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? Did it work out?

Let’s hope it works out for the girls who took part in Fatherly.com’s recent nationwide survey. Forty-one percent of them responded that they wanted to have careers in the so-called STEM fields — science, technology, engineering and math. Just 32 percent of boys said they wanted a STEM career.

This is, of course, in stark contrast to the well-noted gap in gender representation in these fields. The most recent Census data shows that women make up only 24 percent of workers in STEM careers. Meanwhile, just 13 percent to 15 percent of software engineers are women — even though it’s one of the hottest fields in tech.

Keep in mind that bachelor’s degrees in STEM make up 25 out of the top 26 degrees for potential earning after college — and you can see there’s certainly a disconnect. So the results of the Fatherly study are certainly promising for industries hoping to become more diverse.

Here are some other fun results:

• Top five professions for boys: Pro Athlete, Don’t Know, Firefighter, Engineer, Astronaut.
• Top five professions for girls: Doctor, Teacher, Don’t Know, Scientist, Chef/Baker.
• Most popular profession in the Northeast: Doctor.
• Most popular profession overall: Pro Athlete.
• A few classic kids’ responses: Kitty Cat, Pop Princess, Mattress Tester.

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