A decade of funding, campaigns, and rhetoric later, California’s women in STEM are still waiting for real progress

A decade of pledges, grants, and high-minded speeches was supposed to fix the gender gap in science and technology. Instead, California’s latest numbers tell a familiar, and frustrating, story: women remain a minority in nearly every STEM field, despite years of investment and political posturing.According to an analysis by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), reported by AP News, women’s share of engineering and computer science degrees has inched upward over the past ten years, but only by single digits. In mathematics, the pipeline has actually gone backward.“The unfortunate news is that the numbers haven’t changed much at all,” Hans Johnson, a senior fellow at PPIC, told AP News. “At this pace it would take a very long time to reach parity.”

Millions invested, but the gap won’t budge

Between 2009 and 2023, women earning engineering degrees crept from about 19% to 25%. In computer science, from 16% to 23%. Those numbers look less like a breakthrough and more like a rounding error in the fight for equality.Meanwhile, women hold 42% of California’s jobs overall — but just a quarter of STEM roles, according to a Mount Saint Mary’s University study cited by AP News. In some areas, like math, women are even losing ground compared to five or ten years ago.

“It’s a cultural phenomenon, not a biological phenomenon,” UC Merced applied math professor Mayya Tokman told AP News. Translation: women aren’t disappearing from science because they can’t hack it, but because the system continues to push them out — through stereotypes, uneven education, and a shortage of role models.

Politics pulls the plug

The problem isn’t just cultural — it’s political. When California finally started making investments in closing equity gaps, budget cuts gutted the effort.

A program launched in 2018 to expand women’s access to science and technology began with $10 million annually. Today, its budget has been cut nearly in half.And Washington hasn’t helped. “We need more people in STEM. More people means immigrants, women, people of colour as well as white men. There’s no point in excluding anyone,” Sue Rosser, provost emerita at San Francisco State, told AP News. But federal decisions have done exactly that.Over the past year alone, the Trump administration has slashed California’s research funding — jeopardising work on vaccines, dementia, women’s health, and LGBTQ+ issues, AP News reported. Undergraduate support programs have vanished. Most recently, hundreds of millions in UCLA grants were frozen amid a Justice Department probe, with the administration demanding a staggering $1 billion settlement before restoring the funds.

A judge has forced some reinstatements, but the damage is already done.

From women in STEM to “boys in crisis”

Just a few years ago, women in STEM was the rallying cry. Today, the focus has drifted elsewhere. During the pandemic, many lawmakers and donors pivoted toward racial justice. And in July, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order urging the state to address what he called a “growing crisis of connection and opportunity for men and boys.”His statement that “it’s not a zero-sum game” sounds conciliatory.

But in practice, women’s programs have been first on the chopping block.

The stakes are higher than numbers

The irony is glaring: while US tech and science industries face chronic worker shortages, half the population remains systematically sidelined. STEM jobs are not just well-paid — they are central to economic growth, global competitiveness, and even national security.California’s slow crawl toward equality in science and technology isn’t just a setback for women. It’s a failure for everyone.