Mexican women currently represent a majority of the country's university population, yet they remain significantly underrepresented in the fields that offer the highest salaries and strongest job security. Data released by the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (IMCO) and reported by El Economista confirms that women account for 54% of total university enrollment nationwide.
Despite this overall majority, career choices remain heavily divided by gender. In STEM disciplines—science, technology, engineering, and mathematics—women hold only one out of every three spots. The gap is most pronounced in information technology, where women comprise just 24% of the student body, and in engineering, manufacturing, and construction, where they represent 32%.
Structural barriers to technical careers
The disparities in higher education are rooted in academic trends that begin long before university. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OCDE), 69% of girls in Mexico fail to reach fundamental competency levels in mathematics, compared to 62% of boys. This early-stage academic gap directly influences professional trajectories, as men are four times more likely to select STEM-related majors than their female peers.
Cultural factors also reinforce these outcomes. The IMCO points to a lack of female role models in technical fields and persistent gender stereotypes as primary deterrents. Consequently, female students are heavily concentrated in traditionally feminized sectors, such as education, where they make up 75% of the students, and health sciences, where they account for 69%.
This segregation carries heavy economic consequences. The World Economic Forum identifies STEM sectors as the most resilient against the rise of automation and artificial intelligence. Women who do enter these fields earn an average of 16,993 pesos monthly, which is 7.4% higher than the average for other sectors. Furthermore, 74% of female STEM graduates secure formal employment with social security benefits.
However, reaching these sectors does not guarantee pay equity. Within the same STEM industries, women still earn 15% less than their male counterparts on average. With only one-quarter of all STEM jobs held by women, researchers warn that the current system is failing to bridge a critical gender gap while simultaneously wasting significant national talent.
