Why women STEM majors are less likely than men to persist in completing a STEM degree: More than the individual

Abstract

There is a U.S. workforce shortage in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields, with women often being underrepresented. To explore gender differences in the completion of a STEM degree, we examined predictors of persistence from the time of college application through the end of the fourth year of college for 40,974 undergraduates who intended to pursue a STEM major at 83 four-year institutions. Men persisted at higher rates (65%) than women (48%). We found support for ability, investment, and self-perception in STEM as antecedents of persistence. Men had higher mean scores than women on all but two predictors. Additionally, women's persistence increased as female representation in STEM at an institution increased.