The 2024–25 STEM Influencer Survey by YouthInsight explored parents’ perceptions and attitudes to STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).
Attitudes and engagement with STEM
You can use this interactive data to compare STEM interest and perceptions among parents across demographic groups, including how often they talk with their kids about STEM.
Source: YouthInsight 2024–25
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How to read this chart
The coloured bars show the proportion of parents who agreed with each statement about STEM.
The diamonds show the proportion of parents in the chosen demographics who agreed.
For example, this image shows:
- 48% of all mothers were interested in engineering
- 67% of mothers with STEM qualifications were interested in engineering, compared to 45% of those without STEM qualifications
- 76% of all fathers were interested in engineering
- 88% of fathers with STEM qualifications were interested in engineering, compared to 70% of those without STEM qualifications.
Data insights
The survey found a strong relationship between parents’ own employment and education circumstances and their views on STEM and their children’s study and careers.
A significantly larger proportion of fathers reported having higher education qualifications compared to mothers (68% of fathers, 56% of mothers). For more information on significance testing, see the STEM influencer parent survey 2024–25 report. This gap was even greater when focusing on STEM. Among tertiary-qualified parents, fathers were more than twice as likely to have a STEM qualification as mothers (44% of fathers, 19% of mothers). These significant differences were also present in the previous STEM influencer surveys conducted in 2020-21 and 2022-23.
Parents’ perception of the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on future careers
In 2024–25, parents were asked, for the first time, about the influence of recent advances in AI. Almost 9 in 10 (86%) parents agreed that generative AI tools will have a significant impact on work and careers in the future.
The survey also asked whether parents had spoken to their children about AI or the impact on their future careers. A third (33%) had already discussed this with their children. A further 45% planned to speak to them about this, adding to a total of 8 in 10 (78%).
Mothers were more unsure about whether they would speak to their children about this than fathers. Parents of children in secondary school, those in metro areas, those in higher socio-economic status (SES) areas and culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) parents were more likely to have spoken to their children about AI or its impact on jobs.
STEM importance
In 2024–25, most parents (91%) agreed that a STEM-skilled workforce is important for the Australian economy. While this was slightly more than the previous STEM influencer survey (2022–23) with a 90% agreement, the difference was not significant.
Compared to the 2022–23 survey, a lower proportion of parents agreed that their child needed the following skills to get a good job in future, although the differences across surveys were not significant. For example:
- science skills (75% in 2024–25, down from 76% in 2022–23)
- engineering skills (71% in 2024–25, down from 72% in 2022–23).
In the 2024–25 survey, there were significant increases in the proportion of parents who agreed their child needed the following to get a good job in future, including:
- technology skills (90% in 2024–25, up from 87% in 2022–23)
- mathematics skills (87% in 2024–25, up from 83% in 2022–23)
- STEM as a general set of skills (84% in 2024–25, up from 81% in 2022–23).
A higher proportion of fathers than mothers agreed that STEM skills are important to get a good job. However, for mathematics skills, mothers and fathers were near equal. Eighty-seven per cent of mothers and 88% of fathers agreed maths skills are important for their child to get a good job in future.
Parents whose eldest child is a boy were more likely to believe that engineering skills are important than parents whose eldest child is a girl (74% for parents of boys compared to 67% for parents of girls).
Parents in metropolitan areas were more likely to view science (77%) and engineering (73%) as important compared to parents in regional or remote areas (science 70%, engineering 67%).
Parents with a CALD background were more likely to view all STEM skills as important compared to non-CALD parents.
Conversations about STEM
More than a third of parents (38%) reported having at least weekly discussions with their children about STEM topics. Fourteen per cent of parents did not discuss STEM with their children at all. This is a significant increase from 11% in 2022–23, returning to levels reported in the 2020-21 survey (15%).
Families held STEM conversations significantly more often when at least one parent had a STEM qualification (49% had weekly conversations). This was in comparison to those without a STEM qualification (34% had weekly conversations).
There were no significant differences in weekly conversations about STEM topics among fathers compared to mothers, or parents of boys compared to parents of girls. However, there have been changes among these groups since the last survey. Weekly conversations between parents and children have decreased from the last survey. These decreases were:
- mothers down from 46% to 37%
- fathers down from 48% to 34%
- parents of girls from 48% to 36%
- parents of boys from 46% to 39%.
The topics of conversations are varied with nearly half of all parents talking about technology (47%), how to apply maths in the real world (48%), how things are made (51%) and STEM topics of interest with the child (63%).
STEM engagement
Seventy-seven per cent of parents said they had a general interest in STEM, with technology (78%) and science (75%) the most popular subjects. This is slightly lower than in 2022–23, however these changes are not statistically significant.
Interest levels were significantly higher among fathers than mothers across all STEM subjects. Close to a third of all parents had low or no interest in mathematics (42%) or engineering (38%).
Parents of boys showed higher levels of interest in engineering (65%, compared to 60% of parents of girls). Interest in science, technology and mathematics was equal for parents of both boys and girls.
General interest in STEM was also significantly higher among parents from:
- metropolitan locations (79%), compared to parents from regional and remote locations (72%)
- higher socio-economic areas (79%), compared to parents from lower socio-economic areas (73%)
- CALD backgrounds (86%), compared to parents from a non-CALD background (74%).
More than three-quarters (76%) of parents reported having medium to high confidence in their ability to support their children with STEM. Fathers were significantly more likely to report being confident in supporting their children with STEM schoolwork (84%) compared to mothers (68%).
More parents reported medium or high confidence in supporting their child with technology (75%), science (70%) and mathematics (67%) than engineering (55%). Parents were least confident in supporting their child with engineering, with 45% reporting low or no confidence in this area.
Confidence in supporting their child with STEM in general was significantly higher among parents from a:
- CALD background (83%), compared to a non-CALD background (75%)
- higher socio-economic area (79%), compared to parents from a lower socio-economic area (72%).
In STEM subjects overall, parents perceived a gendered difference in children’s confidence in STEM subjects. A large proportion of parents believed that boys were more confident in STEM subjects than girls. 69% of parents believed that boys were more confident in STEM subjects, compared to 16% pf parents who believed that girls were more confident.
Gender perceptions about STEM subjects and careers
You can use the interactive data below to compare gender perceptions among parents across demographic groups. You can also explore parent views on how engaged girls and boys are in STEM subjects and parent perceptions on how suited they are to STEM careers.
Source: YouthInsight 2024–25
Data insights
STEM gender perceptions by subject
The survey asked parents about the ease of engaging girls and boys in STEM.
- 58% of all parents agreed that it is easier to engage boys in STEM compared to other subject areas. Parents of boys were significantly more likely to agree with this (62%) than parents of girls (53%).
- 31% of all parents agreed that it’s easier to engage girls in STEM compared to other subject areas. Parents of girls were more likely to agree with this (33%), than parents of boys (29%).
- 47% of parents agreed that it’s easier to engage boys with STEM compared to girls, while 24% of parents agreed it’s easier to engage girls with STEM than boys.
STEM gender perceptions by career
The survey asked parents whether boys or girls have a better chance to succeed in STEM.
- Fathers were more likely to agree that boys have a better chance to succeed in STEM careers compared to girls (42%), than they were to agree that girls have a better chance of success than boys (32%).
- A higher proportion of mothers agreed that boys have a better chance of success in STEM careers compared to girls (36%), than girls do compared to boys (18%).
- Parents of boys were more likely to agree that boys have a better chance to succeed in a STEM career (41%) compared to parents of girls (37%). They were also significantly more likely to agree that boys are better suited to STEM careers than girls (34%) compared to parents of girls (25%).
Some groups of parents were more likely to believe in girls’ or boys’ STEM engagement, suitability, or career success. For example:
- 36% of parents from CALD backgrounds agreed it’s easier to engage girls with STEM subjects compared to other subject areas, this is significantly higher than parents from non-CALD backgrounds (29%).
- Among parents where at least one parent worked in a STEM job, there were significantly higher proportions of agreement to the following statements:
- Girls have a better chance to succeed in a STEM career compared to boys – 35% agreement among parents where at least one parent worked in a STEM job, compared to 23% among parents who did not work in STEM jobs.
- It’s easier to engage girls with STEM subjects compared to other subject areas – 36% agreement among parents where at least one parent worked in a STEM job, compared to 29% among parents who did not work in STEM jobs.
Despite this, more than half of all parents did not believe gender plays any role in a successful STEM career. For example:
- 61% disagreed that boys have a better chance at succeeding in STEM compared to girls
- 75% disagreed with the same statement regarding girls
- 70% disagreed with the statement that boys are better suited to STEM careers than girls.
The data showed a pattern between parents’ perceptions of the suitability of different jobs to different genders, and the perceived importance of STEM skills to those jobs. Parents tended to think:
- computing and information technology jobs were perceived as better suited to men and were jobs where STEM skills were perceived as the most essential
- pharmacy and teaching were the only jobs perceived as better suited to women, and STEM skills were perceived as essential for these roles
- nursing was heavily associated with women, with STEM skills perceived as moderately essential.
These results were consistent with the STEM influencer teacher and career advisor survey.
Pharmacist was universally thought as a job suited for girls and requiring STEM skills.
About the data
The 2024–25 STEM influencer parents survey was a survey of 1,500 parents. The survey asked questions designed to understand how parents contribute to young people’s perceptions and attitudes to STEM. Respondents came from all states and territories across Australia.
To ensure survey results represented the population, weighting corrected for under- or over-representation of sub-groups by gender and state or territory.
Our department commissioned YouthInsight to carry out this survey as part of the Youth in STEM research project. In 2024–25, they also surveyed teachers and career advisers to complement the parent survey. They will conduct the Youth in STEM survey again in 2025–26.
Refer to the STEM influencer parent survey 2024–25 report for more detailed information and project methodology.
Read the STEM influencer parent survey 2022–23 report.
Read about our methodology.