Our latest survey shows children still hold gendered biases about STEM - but storytelling can shift their perceptions

Perceptions of job suitability

According to the latest evaluation survey conducted by Future You, parents and children perceived roles such as heavy vehicle mechanics and aerospace engineering as ‘men’s work’, while jobs like nursing were viewed as more suitable for women.

• 75% of children felt that the role of heavy vehicle mechanic was more suitable for men
• 31% viewed aerospace engineering as more suitable for men
• 62% believed nursing to be more suitable for women. 

The survey engaged over 600 teachers, parents and children across Australia and examined perceptions of STEM, career suitability and the impact of real-world career storytelling.

Importantly, the survey results also demonstrated that these stereotyped perceptions can be influenced – at least in the short term.

To examine possible solutions, participants viewed a video featuring the stories of relatable STEM role models who buck those gender stereotypes such as a nurse, a heavy vehicle mechanic and a software engineer.

After viewing a single video, researchers observed reduced gender stereotyping. The reduction was most pronounced amongst parents and carers, where perceptions were initially the most stereotyped:

• After hearing from Louise, a heavy vehicle mechanic, perceptions of whether the role was suitable for people of any gender shifted by 34%.
• After hearing from Stuart, a nurse, gendered perceptions shifted by 28%.

Exploring the influence of families is important given the broader context. During the survey, 93% of parents agreed that they were 'happy for my child to choose any career they enjoy, even when it's not in STEM'.

Despite these intentions, response data indicated that parents are more likely to encourage STEM careers when:

• their child is a boy (70% vs 57% for girls)
• their child is culturally or linguistically diverse (82% vs 60% for non CALD)
• the parent is a man (74% vs 60% when the parent is a woman).

We also found that:

• parents of boys are more likely to believe their child's interests would suit a STEM career (78% vs girls at 60%)
• parents who work in science, engineering, construction, agriculture, mining or IT are more likely to feel their child is interested in STEM subjects at school (86% vs an average of 69%)
• parents tend to overestimate boys suitability for STEM careers (78%) relative to their observed interest (74%), while underestimating girls suitability (60%) relative to their observed interest (65%).

These findings underscore the central role played by parents and carers in shaping their children’s views about who belongs in STEM, and presents a significant opportunity to explore how families can be meaningfully included in STEM engagement initiatives. 

Attitudes towards STEM careers

Interestingly, we also found that children understand the importance of STEM careers, yet more than a third are undecided about whether they can see themselves in a job involving STEM in the future. 

Data gathered during the study showed that:

• while 92% of children believe jobs using STEM are ‘very or pretty important’ for the world
• only 47% currently see themselves in a STEM-related career in the future. 

While these findings may appear discouraging at first glance, a significant opportunity lies within these data. More than a third of children who participated (38%) said they were unsure whether they could see themselves in a job that uses STEM - suggesting an openness to being influenced rather than outright disengagement.  

If we can find ways to influence the perceptions of this group of uncertain but open-minded children, alongside the 47% who already say they can see themselves in a future STEM role, as many as 85% of children could ultimately see a future for themselves in a STEM-related career. 

Speaking about the study, Professor Lisa Harvey-Smith, Future You Ambassador and former Australian Government Women in STEM Ambassador said:

“These findings show the power of relatable storytelling from diverse role models and support an existing body of evidence showing that parents and carers play a crucial role in shaping how children understand who belongs in STEM careers.

If we’re serious about engaging more young people from underrepresented backgrounds in STEM careers, then we need a renewed effort to work with young people and their families to shape societal attitudes. That’s why we’re delighted to offer the Future You program free to all students across Australia, whether they are in school or exploring career ideas with their families.” 

Perceptions of the Future You Pathfinder videos

After viewing one of our Pathfinder videos, parents were invited to submit open-ended free text responses in response to the question 'what did you think about the video you just watched'? 

When coding the open ended responses, we found that:

• 29% found them empowering, inspiring or motivating
• 15% desribed them as challenging stereotypes
• 12% described them as generally intreresting

Following the viewing of the video, parents were asked again 'do you think each of these jobs are more suitable for men, for women, or for either?'. When compared to their baseline responses, we found that, generally, the videos reduced parents' gender stereotypes in the short-term:

• After viewing Kayta's pathfinder video, which explores her career as a software developer (n=102), there was an 11% difference in the number of people who saw the role of software engineer as being for either men or women.
• After hearing from Louise, a heavy vehicle mechanic, there was a 34% difference.
• Following viewing Stuart's video about his experience as a registered nurse, a 28% difference was observed.

The challenge, now, is for us to build sustained engagement so that we can continue to shift stereotypes in the medium and long term. 

I think it was very positive and encouraging to believe in ourselves and proves that we can do anything we like. There is no gender specific job, both women and men can equally excell in a profession - parent

I really like that it highlighted that high school wasn’t for her, and that she already knew  that university wouldn’t be  for her...being able to write big assignments or essays, does not make you smart. There are many different ways you can be smart - teacher

Changed my opinion about women working on heavy vehicles - parent

About this evaluation

The evaluation study was conducted by McGregor Tan between 5–24 November 2025 and involved 329 families and 209 teachers via an online research panel. Sampling quotas were applied to achieve distribution across states and territories, and rigorous audio validation methods were used to ensure data integrity for responses from children.

Of the teachers surveyed:

• 71% worked in a government/public/state school, 14% in a catholic school and 15% in an indepdent school.
• 25% worked in low socio-economic areas, 60% in mid and 15% in high.
• 83% identified as women and 17% identified as men.
• 49% worked in metro areas and 51% in regional or remote areas.

Of the parents surveyed:

• 36% had a household income under $100k, 21% between $100k-$139k, 15% between $140k-$179k and 18% above $180k.
• 47% were located in capital city metro areas, 26% in other urban areas and 28% in regional, rural or remote locations.
• 49% worked full time, 32% part time or casual and 19% are currently not employed.