Women in STEM: The Scully Effect
How The X-Files and Dana Scully Sparked a Revolution in Science
The Scully effect: how Dana Scully of The X-Files influenced women in STEM. The real survey findings, women in STEM today and ideas for schools.
The Scully effect is the name given to the influence of Dr. Dana Scully, the FBI agent and medical doctor played by Gillian Anderson on The X-Files, on women’s interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). When the show premiered in 1993, women scientists on television were rare, and those who appeared were usually assistants or side characters. Scully was a lead: skeptical, rigorous and the person on the team most likely to solve a case with evidence. A 2018 survey found that many women credit her with shaping how they saw science and themselves.
What is the Scully effect?
The term comes from a 2018 report, “The ‘Scully Effect’: I Want to Believe in STEM,” published by the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media with 21st Century Fox and J. Walter Thompson Intelligence. The researchers surveyed 2,021 women aged 25 and older online in February 2018, deliberately including many women who study or work in STEM and many who had watched the show.
Among women who were familiar with Scully, the report found that:
- 91 percent said she is a role model for girls and women;
- 63 percent said she increased their belief in the importance of STEM;
- 63 percent said she increased their confidence that they could excel in a male-dominated profession;
- 50 percent said she increased their interest in STEM.
Among women who work in STEM, 63 percent said Scully served as their role model. Women who watched the show regularly were also more likely than light viewers or non-viewers to say they had considered working in STEM (40 percent compared with 28 percent) and to have worked in a STEM field (24 percent compared with 16 percent).
The findings come with limits that are worth stating. The survey was opt-in, and it shows that watching the show and working in STEM go together; it does not prove that the show caused women to choose STEM careers. Women already drawn to science may also have been drawn to a science-minded heroine.
Why Dana Scully mattered
Scully’s intelligence was never the joke and never in doubt. She performed autopsies, analyzed forensic evidence and tested her partner Fox Mulder’s theories against the facts. While Mulder leaned toward conspiracy and the paranormal, Scully stood for scientific reasoning, and the show treated her method as a form of courage. She was not a token scientist placed at the edge of the story, and she was respected for her expertise rather than her appearance.
For girls watching in the 1990s, that combination was unusual. It showed science as exciting and authoritative work, done by a woman who was an equal partner in the story.
The Scully Effect (official video from The X Files)
Women in STEM today
Women’s place in STEM has changed since the show began, unevenly across fields:
- Medicine. Women have outnumbered men among new U.S. medical students since 2019. In 2025 they made up 55.0 percent of medical school matriculants, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.
- The STEM workforce. Women held about 12.7 million of 36.8 million STEM jobs in 2021, roughly 35 percent, but only about 27 percent of jobs in science and engineering occupations, according to the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics.
- Engineering. Women earned 25.6 percent of engineering bachelor’s degrees in 2023–24, the Society of Women Engineers reported from federal data.
- Space. In October 2019, NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir carried out the first all-female spacewalk, and Koch went on to complete 328 days in space, the longest single spaceflight by a woman at the time. In April 2026, Koch flew on Artemis II, NASA’s first crewed Artemis mission around the Moon, becoming the first woman to travel beyond low Earth orbit.
These changes did not happen because of one television character. But representation is one of the forces that shape what young people believe is possible, and Scully is one of the clearest examples of a fictional character whose influence researchers have tried to measure.
Building on the Scully effect in schools
For teachers and school leaders, the lesson is practical: students need to see women doing science, and they need to see it often. Ways to build on that include:
- Bring in real role models. Invite women scientists, engineers and health professionals from the community, in person or by video, and feature their work in lessons.
- Use media deliberately. Films, shows and books with capable women scientists can open discussions about stereotypes and about what scientists actually do.
- Connect girls with programs. Organizations such as Girls Who Code and the Society of Women Engineers offer clubs, mentoring and outreach for students.
- Watch for bias in the classroom. Notice who answers questions, who leads lab groups and who is encouraged toward advanced math and science courses.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Scully effect? The influence of Dana Scully, the scientist and FBI agent on The X-Files, on women’s interest in STEM, documented in a 2018 Geena Davis Institute survey.
Did the Scully effect cause women to choose STEM careers? The survey shows a strong association, not proof of cause. Women familiar with Scully said she raised their interest in and confidence about STEM, and regular viewers were more likely to have worked in STEM.
What percentage of STEM workers are women? About 35 percent of U.S. STEM workers in 2021, and about 27 percent of those in science and engineering occupations, according to NCSES.
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