Abstract
Despite the striking reversal of the gender gap in educational attainment and the near–gender parity in math performance, women pursue science and engineering (S/E) degrees at much lower rates than their male peers do. Current efforts to increase the number of women in these fields focus on different life-course periods but lack a clear understanding of the importance of these periods and how orientations toward S/E fields develop over time. In this article, we examine the gendered pathways to a S/E bachelor’s degree from middle school to high school and college based on a representative sample from the 1973 to 1974 birth cohort. Using a counterfactual decomposition analysis, we determine the relative importance of these different life-course periods and thereby inform the direction of future research and policy. Our findings confirm previous research that highlights the importance of early encouragement for gender differences in S/E degrees, but our findings also attest to the high school years as a decisive period for the gender gap, while challenging the focus on college in research and policy. Indeed, if female high school seniors had the same orientation toward and preparation for S/E fields as their male peers, the gender gap in S/E degrees would be closed by as much as 82 percent.
Highlights
Despite the striking reversal of the gender gap in educational attainment and the near–gender parity in math performance, women pursue science and engineering (S/E) degrees at much lower rates than their male peers do
Our findings confirm previous research that highlights the importance of early encouragement for the overall number of students with a S/E degree (Tai et al 2006)
Our counterfactual decompositions challenge the focus on the college years to close the gender gap in S/E fields
Summary
To examine the role of different life-course periods, we use a representative sample of 10,230 eighthgrade students from the 1973 to 1974 birth cohort who were followed over time in the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS) from 1988 to 2000. The first stage is defined by expectations for a S/E career in eighth grade, as measured by the survey question “What kind of work do you expect to be doing when you are 30 years old?” The second stage is based on concrete plans to major in a S/E field in college at the end of high school (12th grade), measured by the survey question “Indicate the field that comes closest to what you would most like to study if you go to school.” These 8th- and 12thgrade variables are supplemented by measures for math and science performance and student interest to comprehensively capture pre–high school and high school gender differences in S/E orientation and preparation.
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