thus, women represent a significant potential source for increasing stem majors.
more than 32% of women college students who declare a stem major are likely to switch to non-stem majors before they graduate, whereas only 25% of their male counterparts do so, and women may be as much as 1.5 times more likely than men to leave stem fields. if higher education institutions are going to retain more students in stem majors, it will be important to understand who leaves stem fields and why. unfortunately, the trend in retaining students in stem majors has been going down.
Science, technology, engineering, and math (stem) jobs are expected to make up a significant portion of the u.s.
