Journal article
All STEM fields are not created equal: People and things interests explain gender dispar ties across STEM fields
Frontiers in psychology, Vol.6, 189
02/25/2015
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00189
PMCID: PMC4340183
PMID: 25762964
Abstract
The degree of women's underrepresentation varies by STEM fields. Women are now overrepresented in social sciences, yet only constitute a fraction of the engineering workforce. In the current study, we investigated the gender differences in interests as an explanation for the differential distribution of women across sub-disciplines of STEM as well as the overall underrepresentation of women in STEM fields. Specifically, we meta-analytically reviewed norm data on basic interests from 52 samples in 33 interest inventories published between 1964 and 2007, with a total of 209,810 male and 223,268 female respondents. We found gender differences in interests to vary largely by STEM field, with the largest gender differences in interests favoring men observed in engineering disciplines (d = 0.83-1.21), and in contrast, gender differences in interests favoring women in social sciences and medical services (d = 0.33 and 0.40, respectively). Importantly, the gender composition (percentages of women) in STEM fields reflects these gender differences in interests. The patterns of gender differences in interests and the actual gender composition in STEM fields were explained by the people-orientation and things-orientation of work environments, and were not associated with the level of quantitative ability required. These findings suggest potential interventions targeting interests in STEM education to facilitate individuals' ability and career development and strategies to reform work environments to better attract and retain women in STEM occupations.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- All STEM fields are not created equal: People and things interests explain gender dispar ties across STEM fields
- Creators
- Rong Su - Purdue University West LafayetteJames Rounds - University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Frontiers in psychology, Vol.6, 189
- DOI
- 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00189
- PMID
- 25762964
- PMCID
- PMC4340183
- NLM abbreviation
- Front Psychol
- ISSN
- 1664-1078
- eISSN
- 1664-1078
- Publisher
- Frontiers Research Foundation
- Number of pages
- 20
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 02/25/2015
- Academic Unit
- Management and Entrepreneurship
- Record Identifier
- 9984380406002771
Metrics
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