More women are studying STEM, but there are still stubborn workplace barriers
- Written by Lisa Harvey-Smith, Australian Government Women in STEM Ambassador, Professor, UNSW Sydney

Today, the Australian government released the STEM Equity Monitor 2022[1] – the nation’s annual scorecard on gendered participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and careers.
These data are more relevant than ever. Australia is facing unprecedented skills shortages[2] in critical areas – we need highly qualified people to help address our economic, environmental, and technological challenges.
Future careers in all sectors will rely heavily on STEM skills. But a lack of diversity means we have a limited workforce, and it’s missing a broad range of perspectives.
Read more: Australia needs more engineers. And more of them need to be women[3]
What does the scorecard say?
We start with some positive news – the number of women enrolling in university STEM courses increased by a whopping 24% between 2015 and 2020, compared with a 9% increase among men. There was a more gradual rise in vocational STEM enrolments, where only 16% are women.
Women’s workforce participation is gradually increasing too. The proportion of STEM-qualified jobs held by women was 15% in 2021 – that’s an increase of 2% in just 12 months.