**2. Gender statistics in the STEM field**

In spite of the progress women have made in education and the workforce over the past 5 decades, we still continue to see men dominate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields [12]. From 1970 to 2019, the proportion of women in the U.S. workforce increased from 38 to 48%, yet women's representation in STEM fields increased from 8% to only 27% in the same time period [12]. The same negligible growth is seen in the UK, between 2016 and 2019.

*Addressing the Gender Gap in the STEM Field DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.114008*

**Figure 1** shows the gender statistics of STEM workers in the UK, and while there has been an increase since 2016, it is still comparatively low overall compared to the male gender.

There is growing literature as to the reasons why more men end up in STEM careers compared to women. Granato [11] poses that the issue can be traced to the early foundation years of children. If females acquire lower science and maths ability and knowledge prior to choosing their major this could potentially translate into a lower probability of choosing a STEM degree. Tian et al. [14] gives more context to this, showing in the study that if more females engaged in spatial activities, it could translate to an interest in mathematics, which is found to be a primary reason why males end up in STEM fields. Granato [11] highlights more external factors that could be the reason for the gender gap, the study poses that external and environmental influences, which can originate from a close environment, such as the family, or from the broader social setting in which students grow up and make their choices, which can influence their decision on the career path to take. The study by Granato [11] follows a five-year investigation into the gender gap in STEM fields in a higher institution in Italy, highlighting the possible reasons for the gender gap in STEM and focusing on governmental policies as a factor to be considered by countries to close the gap.
