Pathways to Science and Engineering Bachelor's Degrees for Men and Women.
Pathways to Science and Engineering Bachelor's Degrees for Men and Women.
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DOI：
10.15195/v1.a4
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发表时间：
2014-02-18
影响因子：
3.4
通讯作者：
DiPrete TA
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Legewie J;DiPrete TA
尽管教育程度的性别差距和数学成绩的近乎性别平等出现了惊人的逆转，但女性攻读理工科(S/E)学位的比率远远低于男性同龄人。目前在这些领域增加妇女人数的努力侧重于不同的人生阶段，但缺乏对这些阶段的重要性以及对S/E领域的导向如何随着时间的推移而发展的清楚认识。在这篇文章中，我们基于1973年至1974年出生队列中具有代表性的样本，考察了S/E从初中到高中和大学的性别路径。利用反事实分解分析，我们确定了这些不同生命周期的相对重要性，从而为未来的研究和政策提供了方向。我们的发现证实了之前的研究，该研究强调了及早鼓励S/E学位性别差异的重要性，但我们的发现也证明，高中时期是性别差异的决定性时期，同时挑战了研究和政策对大学的关注。事实上，如果女性高三学生对S/E领域的取向和准备与男性同龄人一样，S/E学位的性别差距将缩小多达82%。
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.