The Gender Gap in STEM Fields: The Impact of the Gender Stereotype of Math and Science on Secondary Students' Career Aspirations
The Gender Gap in STEM Fields: The Impact of the Gender Stereotype of Math and Science on Secondary Students' Career Aspirations
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DOI：
10.3389/feduc.2019.00060
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发表时间：
2019-07-10
影响因子：
2.3
通讯作者：
Herzog, Walter
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Makarova, Elena;Aeschlimann, Belinda;Herzog, Walter
研究一再报告说，数学和科学被认为是男性的领域，科学家主要是男性。然而，学校科学科目的性别形象对年轻人职业选择的影响尚未得到分析。本文调查了三个学校科目-化学，数学和物理-的男性形象对中学生在STEM领域的职业抱负的影响。数据来源于对1，364名即将获得大学预科文凭的瑞士中学生的横断面研究。采用标准化问卷调查的方法，利用语义差异法收集了理科学生对男性气质的感知数据。结果表明，无论男女，数学具有最强的男性气质归因，其次是物理作为第二，最后，化学与最低的男性气质归因。关于性别差异，我们的研究结果表明，在女学生中，男性气质对三个学校科目的归因没有显着差异，这意味着女学生对所有科目的男性化评价都很高。然而，在男生群体中，与化学和物理相比，数学对男性气质的归因差异很大，而化学和物理对男性气质的归因则没有差异。我们的研究结果还表明，数学和科学的性别科学刻板印象可能会影响年轻女性和男性在大学就读STEM专业的愿望，因为科学的男性形象不那么明显，有可能增加STEM职业抱负的可能性。最后，本文讨论了在中等教育背景下改变数学和科学形象的方法，以克服男女在STEM方面的差距。
Studies have repeatedly reported that math and science are perceived as male domains, and scientists as predominantly male. However, the impact of the gender image of school science subjects on young people's career choice has not yet been analyzed. This paper investigates the impact of the masculinity image of three school subjects-chemistry, mathematics, and physics-on secondary students' career aspirations in STEM fields. The data originated from a cross-sectional study among 1'364 Swiss secondary school students who were close to obtaining their matriculation diploma. By means of a standardized survey, data on students' perception of masculinity of science school subjects were collected using semantic differentials. The results indicate that for both sexes, math has the strongest masculinity attribution, followed by physics as second, and, finally, chemistry with the lowest masculinity attribution. With respect to gender differences, our findings have shown that among female students, the attribution of masculinity to the three school subjects does not differ significantly, meaning that female students rated all subjects similarly strongly as masculine. Within the group of male students however, the attribution of masculinity to math compared to chemistry and physics differs significantly, whereas the attribution of masculinity to chemistry and physics does not. Our findings also suggest that gender-science stereotypes of math and science can potentially influence young women's and men's aspirations to enroll in a STEM major at university by showing that a less pronounced masculine image of science has the potential to increase the likelihood of STEM career aspirations. Finally, the paper discusses ways of changing the image of math and science in the context of secondary education in order to overcome the disparities between females and males in STEM.