Gender, Family Background, and Choices of Major of STEM Students

• In Event: 435 - Section on Sociology of Education Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 05. Race, Gender and STEM

Abstract

This research seeks to understand patterns and sources of gender imbalance within science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors. Drawing on unique administrative data on undergraduate students of the Hong Kong University Science and Technology (HKUST), we examined variations in female representativeness among STEM students across specific science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors instead of broad categories, such as natural science and engineering. We also made initial efforts to pinpoint sources of gender imbalance within STEM majors. Out findings to a large extent corroborates previous patterns found in the United States. There appear to be pronounced gender imbalances in specific STEM fields. Whereas women have already achieved parity with men in the field of biology and made noticeable progress in such fields as chemistry/biochemistry and math, they continue to be underrepresented in traditionally male-dominated “hard-core” fields, particularly most engineering fields and physics. There is also evidence that female STEM majors also tend to come from a more advantaged family background than their male counterparts. Our regression analysis suggests that revealed gender differences in preference for specific STEM fields are unlikely to be explained by family background.

Authors

• Hongbo Wang, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

• Cameron Campbell, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology