From Marie Curie and Rosalind Franklin, to the contemporary Cori Bargmann, women have contributed immensely in the world of science and technology. And while it used to be, and still is, a male-dominated industry, the number of women choosing to study related degrees is growing year by year. In fact, in the UK, figures from HESA (Higher Education Statistics Agency) have shown a 3.1% increase in women enrolling in science subjects from 2017/2018 to 2018/19.
Most women chose to study subjects allied to medicine
Research conducted by The Knowledge Academy finds that the science subjects most sought after by women are allied to medicine. In fact, there were 560,530 undergraduate enrolments in 2017/2018. This number has spiked by 0.9% in the following years, taking the number of women studying subjects allied to medicine to 229,895. According to HESA, fields of interest include: anatomy & physiology, pharmacology, pharmaceutics, nutrition, ophthalmics, audiology, nursing and medical technology.
Veterinary sciences are at the bottom of the list
With only 6,110 undergraduate women enrolled in this course in the year 2017/2018, Veterinary sciences are deemed the least sought after science degree sought by women. However, there is some good news as this number spiked by 6.7% the following year.
Computer sciences see the highest spike in undergraduate female students
Interestingly, the degree which sees the highest percentage increase in female students is Computer sciences —11.6%. This is followed by Agriculture & related subjects (7.8%) and as previously highlighted, Veterinary sciences with 6.7%.
UK is just below the EU average for the number of women in science and tech
When it comes to a wider view, figures from Eurostat have shown that out of the total percentage of people in science and tech in the EU, 41% of them are women. When it comes to the UK, there are 40.7% women in the industry.
