Pipeline Dreams? Gender Differences in Occupational Plans and STEM Major among US College Entrants

• In Event: 087 - Regular Session. Education and Gender: Gendered STEM Education

Abstract

We examine patterns and sources of gender differences in the completion, persistence, dropout, and late college entry into STEM and other science-intensive college majors. We exploit the recently released, 2012 wave of the ELS, a nationally representative longitudinal survey of high school sophomores in 2002. We assess the contributions of four predictors of the gender gap in STEM major completion, adjusting for demographic and socioeconomic background: prior academic performance and preparation, work-family orientation, self-assessed math ability, and the content of occupational plans held in high school and early college. We find that (1) very little of the gender gap in STEM major completion is associated with prior academic performance and preparation, work-family orientation, or self-assessed math ability; (2) by contrast, up to 38% of the gender gap in STEM completion can be traced to gender differences in occupational plans; and (3) the contribution of occupational plans remains high (25%) in models that condition on the other predictors, implying that occupational plans are not reducible to these other factors. We also find highly gender-differentiated patterns of attrition from STEM, little of which is offset by late-career entry into STEM. Women who were STEM majors as college sophomores were more likely to leave college without a degree than to complete a STEM major, the reverse of men who initially selected STEM or of women who initially chose non-STEM majors.

Authors

• Kim Weeden, Cornell University

• Dafna Gelbgiser, Cornell University

• Stephen L. Morgan, Johns Hopkins University