Women in STEM research shames UK

The UK ranks 28th with women in STEM pay 19.8 per cent below men's earnings.

The revelations come from Accu and coincided with International Day of Women and Girls in Science last week. Engineering experts at Accu sought to identify where women in STEM were best supported across Europe.

Their analysis assessed key indicators, including women’s representation in STEM occupations, the proportion of women among STEM graduates, the share of tertiary-educated women employed in STEM roles, and national gender pay gaps.

Its findings provided a comparative picture of how effectively different countries enable women to enter, remain, and progress in STEM careers.

Key findings:

• Sweden is Europe’s best country for women in STEM, scoring 9.06/10.

• Ireland follows in second place (8.56/10) with a high proportion of women employed in ICT and engineering roles compared to the European average.

• The UK ranks 28th with the highest gender pay gap in Europe (19.8 per cent below men’s earnings)

• Hungary is Europe’s worst country for women in STEM, scoring 4.56/10.

In Sweden, women account for 24 per cent of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) specialists and 51.3 per cent of the science and technology workforce. Tertiary-educated women employed in STEM also exceed typical European levels with 41 per cent, second only to Luxembourg. Sweden’s gender pay gap is on par with the European average at 11.2 per cent below men’s earnings.

Women account for 24.4 per cent of ICT specialists, 42.4 per cent of the science and technology workforce, and 12.8 per cent of engineers in Ireland, exceeding the median for all three sectors. Tertiary-educated women make up 36 per cent of those employed in STEM, while the gender pay gap stands at 8.6 per cent, notably lower than the European average of 11..5 per cent, contributing to Ireland’s high overall score of 8.56/10.

Iceland has the highest number of women graduating in STEM. In Iceland, women comprise 48.4 per cent of the science and technology workforce and 43.3 per cent of tertiary-educated employees in STEM, both of which are well above the respective averages. While women account for a lower 18.6 per cent of ICT specialists, this is offset by a relatively small gender pay gap of 9.8 per cent.

In the UK, 17.1 per cent of women in the STEM labour force work in ICT; 39.4 per cent in IT; 9.4 per cent in engineering and has 40.5 per cent among STEM graduates. It scores 6.25 out of 10.

Alastair Morris, UK Managing Director at Accu, said: “When women face barriers entering or progressing in STEM roles, the risk is not just individual career loss but systemic skills shortages and weaker innovation outcomes.

“Engineering teams benefit greatly from women’s strengths in complex problem-solving and excellent communication skills, and organisations that fail to attract and retain women are effectively narrowing their own technical capability at a time when demand for STEM skills is growing.”