Abstract
Throughout the world, the labor market is clearly gender segregated. More research is needed to explain women’s lower interest in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) majors and particularly to explain men’s lower interest in HEED (Health care, Elementary Education, and the Domestic spheres) majors. We tested self-efficacy (competence beliefs) and social belongingness expectations (fitting in socially) as mediators of gender differences in interest in STEM and HEED majors in a representative sample of 1327 Swedish high school students. Gender differences in interest in STEM majors strongly related to women’s lower self-efficacy for STEM careers and, to a lesser degree, to women’s lower social belongingness expectations with students in STEM majors. Social belongingness expectations also partly explained men’s lower interest in HEED majors, but self-efficacy was not an important mediator of gender differences in interest in HEED. These results imply that interventions designed to lessen gender segregation in the labor market need to focus more on the social belongingness of students in the gender minority. Further, to specifically increase women’s interest in STEM majors, we need to counteract gender stereotypical competence beliefs and assure women that they have what it takes to handle STEM careers.
Highlights
Throughout the world, the labor market is clearly gender segregated
We propose four main hypotheses: (a) There are gender differences in interest in STEM majors and HEED majors (Hypothesis 1), (b) There are gender differences in self-efficacy as well as social belongingness expectations in relation to STEM majors and HEED majors (Hypothesis 2), (c) Gender differences in self-efficacy and social belongingness expectations mediate gender differences in interest (Hypothesis 3), and (d) Selfefficacy and social belongingness differ in the extent to which they mediate a gender difference in interest in STEM majors and HEED majors (Hypothesis 4)
We first tested Hypothesis 1, which predicted that men are more interested than women are in STEM majors and that women are more interested than men are in HEED majors, using mixed ANOVA with STEM and HEED ratings as a within-subject factor and gender as between group factor
Summary
Throughout the world, the labor market is clearly gender segregated. More research is needed to explain women’s lower interest in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) majors and to explain men’s lower interest in HEED (Health care, Elementary Education, and the Domestic spheres) majors. Social belongingness expectations partly explained men’s lower interest in HEED majors, but self-efficacy was not an important mediator of gender differences in interest in HEED These results imply that interventions designed to lessen gender segregation in the labor market need to focus more on the social belongingness of students in the gender minority. The segregation is apparent both horizontally—simplified as women working with Bpeople^ and men with Bthings^ (Su et al 2009)—and vertically, with men dominating superior positions across sectors (Blackburn et al 2014) This is true even in relatively gender-equal countries, including Sweden (European Commission 2009, 2014; World Economic Forum 2014), where the present study was performed. There is reason to belive that mediation of these gender differences will partly differ because structural gender inequalities in society (Ridgeway 2001) and their associated gender stereotypes (Eagly 1987; Fiske et al 2002) impact men and women (Rudman and Glick 2008a), and may cause their career concerns to differ, which will be explained in more detail in the following
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