Women and the Sciences in Britain: getting in?

Abstract

We address here the issue of girls and women entering the sciences, both in terms of education and employment, focusing on the occupational outcomes of science, engineering and technology (SET) graduates. We observe that compared to other professions such as the law and medicine, women's and girls’ entry to the sciences has been slow, although we point out that the differences between the sciences in terms of numerical feminisation are considerable. We show that women and men SET graduates use their human capital in different ways in the labour market and that there has been rather little change in these patterns over the past 15 years. Women translate their scientific degrees into professional scientific jobs less than men do and also show higher levels of overqualification in the labour market. We consider the policy implications of our findings, arguing that labour market policies, not just education policies, need to receive attention.

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