Bye bye Ms. American Sci: Women and the leaky STEM pipeline

Abstract

More than two-thirds of STEM jobs are held by men. In this paper, I provide a detailed analysis of the STEM pipeline from high school to mid-career in the United States, decomposing the gender gap in STEM into six stages. Women are lost from STEM before college, during college, and after college. Men are more likely to be STEM-ready before college, scoring higher on science tests and having taken more advanced math and science courses. This accounts for 35% of the overall gender gap in STEM careers. During college, men are far more likely than women to start in a STEM major, accounting for 26% of the gap. After college, male STEM graduates are more likely to enter STEM jobs, accounting for 41%. Men’s higher persistence in STEM majors is a smaller factor, while women attend college at higher rates than men, which works to reduce the final gender gap in STEM. The results show that there is no single stage to focus on in understanding the gender gap in STEM.