How do Friends in Class and Classmates Lead to Gender Differences in STEM Choices?

• In Event: 523 - Section on Sociology of Education Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 02. STEM Education

Abstract

Although more women enter formerly male-dominated fields, they remain underrepresented in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). This paper examines how adolescent’s social environment, defined as friends in class and other (non-friend) classmates, influence gender-specific STEM choices. We study if boys and girls are influenced differently by the math achievement of the environment and by the gender normative ideas of their environment. We used three waves (N = 726) from the CILS project, which surveyed adolescents in secondary education in the Netherlands at age 15 (2011/2012) and after secondary education at age 17-18 (2014 & 2015). Using multinominal-logistic regression analyses, results show that the likelihood of choosing STEM fields over non-STEM fields increases when friends in class are better in mathematics, but decreases when friends in class have a higher comparative advantage in mathematics (are better in mathematics compared to languages). A higher math achievement of non-friend classmates decreases the likelihood of choosing biology over non-STEM fields, but their higher comparative advantage in mathematics increases the likelihood of choosing biology. We conclude that both the average math achievement and the comparative advantage in mathematics of students’ environment matter for STEM choices, but that the environment’s achievement does not explain gender differences in STEM fields. Moreover, friends and non-friend classmates are different aspects of students’ social environment as they influence students’ STEM choices differently. Lastly, a more traditional gender normative environment impedes girls from entering STEM fields, suggesting that gender stereotypes of STEM fields as masculine are influential.

Authors

• Maaike van der Vleuten, Utrecht University

• Stephanie Steinmetz, University of Amsterdam

• Herman G. Van De Werfhorst, University of Amsterdam