Abstract:

In most countries women represent a higher percentage of all university students however, women are under-represented in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields at university (OCDE, 2022). Numerous studies show how achieving gender equality in STEM education would lead first, to a significant improvement in the well-being for the whole of society, contributing to a country’s competitiveness and economic prosperity, and second, it will lead better labour market conditions and higher salaries for women with a background in engineering and computer science.One of the sustainable development goals in the 20230 Agenda of United Nations 2030 is Goal 5 to achieve gender equality and to empower all women and girls; hence promoting gender equality in STEM university degrees is a key goal. In Spain, universities are interested in introducing new actions to fulfil this goal, but in order to do so, empirical evidence is needed to answer several research questions: first, what is the magnitude of gender gap in STEM studies? and second, why are women staying away from STEM university careers? This paper provides empirical evidence to answer both questions related to the University of the Balearic Islands. Information was collected using a structured questionnaire and 701 surveys were gathered from university entrance students from 2015 to 2022. Statistical analysis was carried out with SPSS software

Results show first, that, despite the advances made in recent years (in 2021/22 female students represented 60,35% of the total students), women are less likely to choose a career in STEM areas at the UIB, and more particularly in engineering, mathematics and computer science, only 18,5% of total students enrolled in these studies. Second, data obtained, through the survey addressed to students enrolled at first year at the UIB, conclude that there are internal and external factors lying behind this underrepresentation of women in STEM fields; thus, self-perception, interest and self-efficacy, university extracurricular courses, peers and family commitment, environment and networking affect decision-making reasons that cause the choice of STEM university degrees. Third, almost 50% female students indicate that the main reason for choosing their studies is vocational, and less than 10% indicate that is due to social references. This lack of social references explains the fact that only 50% of students indicate that they do not know any scientific women. Additionally, 40% of women consider that stereotypes are the main reason why there is a gender gap in STEM fields, and a 37% recognise that a fewer level of self-efficacy is another key factor to understand this gap, even though empirical evidence indicates that women are even better prepared than men. The results also indicate that external factors, such as the extracurricular experiences introduced recently by the UIB at the High Schools in the Balearics are key factors to reduce the gender gap and are very positively valued to attract women to STEM studies. Finally, some specific proposals addressed to reduce the gender gap in STEM careers are described.

**Research funded by project PID_ODS212208 entitled: STEAM academic and professional orientation, a challenge for women" under the Call for grants for projects to innovate and improve teaching quality. Academic year 2021-22

Keywords:

STEM, gender gap, university, factors.