WISE tracks progress towards our goal of a critical mass of women working in the UK STEM workforce (30%) through the Labour Force Survey which gives a gender breakdown for different occupations. The latest figures, (August 2015), show that women make up 14.4% of all people working in STEM occupations.
There are big differences in the percentage of women in occupations within STEM, as shown in the chart below.
We are making progress
Compared to 2014:
- 104,000 more women working in STEM
- 47,000 more women working as ICT professionals
- 12,000 more women working as professional engineers
- 6,000 more women working as science and engineering technicians
- 15,000 more women working as STEM Managers
The Ten Steps programme WISE put together in partnership with the Royal Academy of Engineering is a solution to improve retention and progression of women in STEM.
The following chart shows trends since 2012.
Source: Labour Force Survey April-June 2015, published by Office for National Statistics, August 2015