Abstract—Recruiting more women into Science, Technology, Engineering and Medicine (STEM) programs has been a subject of study in recent decades. Many factors are involved in having lower numbers of admission of women into STEM programs, among them are the culture of the regions, the design of the programs, and the gender barriers. In recent years, it has been observed that women are increasing their participation in the professional context as more women graduate from STEM programs year after year. However, in some regions, the number of women continues to be very low. In this paper, we show how the educational process within the university can be a factor that can help break the gender barriers in the professional context, allowing women to access strategic positions in industry, and public and private sectors organizations and institutions. As it has been observed in different studies, there are two factors that commonly present and that are part of this work: the lack of job opportunities for women and the lack of professional role models for younger women that could inspire them to study a STEM program. In this study, we present the results of a survey that 80 young female engineers answered regarding their perception of what they have faced after graduation in terms of gender barriers, job searching and promotions and how the years in university and the competencies developed have made a difference. 
 

Keywords—STEM education, women in engineering, gender barriers 

Cite: Israel Zamora-Hernandez, Miguel X. Rodriguez-Paz, and Jorge A. Gonzalez-Mendivil, "How Academic Training in STEM Helps to Break Gender Barriers after Graduation," International Journal of Learning and Teaching, Vol. 10, No. 3, pp. 336-340, 2024.

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