It is no secret that there are less women involved in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math, but a new study has just found the exact age when girls become interested in these subjects, and when they begin to lose their interest.
According to a new survey commissioned by Microsoft, young girls in Europe start to get captivated by these subjects around the age of 11 and they will suddenly lose interest when they reach 15, CNN Tech reported.
Martin Bauer, a psychology professor in London School of Economics said that the reason why girls are being influenced to take the career path away from STEM fields is because they want to conform to social expectations, and also because of gender roles, gender stereotypes and lack of female role models.
The survey involved 11,500 girls across 12 European countries, and it has also revealed the girls' interest in humanities subject drops when they reach the same age but it bounces back right away. However, their interest in STEM subjects does not recover, according to Yahoo Finance.
Almost 50 percent of the girls who were surveyed said that their teachers were also doing a certain sort of intervention by talking to them and by encouraging them to consider STEM-related careers. Around 38 percent of them said that their parents and families also give them the same kind of support.
This support system does seem to show a significant impact, because 57 percent of the participants said that they are more likely to pursue a STEM-related job if they have a teacher who will urge and push them.
The study also states that having more women as role models, both at home and in the school, will make it more possible to change the trend.
