Why don't more girls choose to pursue a science career? - PISA in Focus #93
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Why don’t more girls choose
to pursue a science career?
PISA in Focus #93Why don’t more girls choose to pursue a science career?
• Boys outperform girls in science in 22 PISA-participating countries, and girls outperform boys in 19. However, boys have a
relative strength in science in 65 out of the 67 participating countries, meaning that they score higher in science than their
average performance across all three main PISA subjects.
• Boys show greater confidence when learning science (in 39 countries) and greater interest in broad science topics (in 51
countries) than girls do.
• The differences in favour of boys in relative academic strength, in confidence and interest in science are associated with
lower graduation rates among women in STEM fields.
When new PISA data are published, many researchers around the world analyse them with the aim of shedding light on all sorts of
questions. One question in search of an answer: why are women under-represented in science, technology, engineering and
mathematics (STEM) professions? Using data from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), Gijsbert Stoet and David
Geary examined the nature of the gender gap in STEM fields. The authors analysed data from 67 countries and economies participating
in the 2015 cycle of PISA; these data were supplemented by country-level indicators on gender equality (the Global Gender Equality
Index) and the proportion of women graduating in a STEM field. Their analysis yielded an interesting result.
The gender gap in STEM studies is already evident among 15-year-olds.
Across the 67 countries and economies that participated in PISA 2015, girls outperformed boys in science in 19, while boys
outperformed girls in 22. In all other countries, the gender differences were not statistically significant. When the authors analysed
gender gaps by looking at each student’s “relative performance” or “strength” across the three subjects (box), the authors found that
girls were stronger in reading in all countries, while boys were stronger in mathematics in all countries, and in science in 65 out of 67
countries/economies. In other words, boys scored higher in science and mathematics compared to their all-subjects average while girls
scored higher in reading. These differences could explain why boys are more likely than girls to choose careers in STEM fields, even
though the overall performance of girls and boys is similar: students may choose their field of study based on their comparative
strengths, rather than on their absolute strengths. Girls may be as good as boys in science, but are, on average, likely to be even better
in reading.
The authors rely on three indicators in their analysis
The Global Gender Equality Index (2015 data) assesses the degree to which girls and women fall behind boys and men
on 14 indicators (e.g. earnings, tertiary enrolment ratio, life expectancy, seats in parliament). Higher values on this index
indicate greater equality between men and women.
Women among STEM graduates (data for 2012 to 2015 period) measures the proportion of women who successfully
completed a university degree in a STEM field among all STEM graduates.
Relative performance or academic strength in PISA 2015 measures the performance of a student in one subject
(mathematics, science or reading) relative to the student’s average performance in all three subjects. Students strong in
science will have a positive relative performance in this subject (i.e. science performance is above the average performance
in the three subjects). All performance scores were first standardised within each country, meaning that they are expressed
in units corresponding to the overall variation (standard deviation) observed in each country.
2 © OECD 2019 PISA in Focus 2019/93 (February)Gender equality and gender differences in relative strength in science, and the percentage of
women among STEM graduates
a) 0.90 0.90
Iceland
Norway Finla
0.85 Finland 0.85
Sweden
Ireland Denmark
Netherlands
0.80 France New Zealand R2 = 0.26 0.80
Switzerland
Slovenia Luxembourg Netherlan
Germany
Moldova
United States
Global Gender Equality Index
Global Gender Equality Index
Lithuania
United Kingdom Canada Belgium Latvia Belgium
0.75 Estonia 0.75
Spain Costa Rica Lithuania
Portugal
Trinidad and Tobago Australia Colombia
Bulgaria Italy Costa Rica
Thailand Poland
North Macedonia Israel Croatia Austria Singapore
Albania Chile Aust
0.70 0.70
Romania Russia
Brazil Mexico Czech Republic Chile
Montenegro Georgia Viet Nam
Indonesia Uruguay
Peru Slovak Republic
Malta Hungary
0.65 Greece 0.65
United Arab Emirates Hungary Korea
Japan
Algeria Qatar Tunisia
Turkey
0.60 Lebanon 0.60
Jordan
0.55 0.55
0.50 0.50
-0.1 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 15
Gender gap in relative strength in science, in favour of boys (difference)
b) 0.90
Norway Finland
0.85 Norway
Sweden Ireland
R2 = 0.26 0.80 New Zealand
Slovenia Germany
xembourg Netherlands Denmark
dova Spain
Switzerland
Global Gender Equality Index
Lithuania France
Belgium United Kingdom
United States
onia 0.75 Latvia Estonia Luxembourg
osta Rica Lithuania Moldova Portugal
Colombia Costa Rica Colombia
and Australia Italy
ore Poland Bulgaria
0.70 Austria Thailand Croatia North Macedonia Albania
zech Republic Chile Czech Republic Mexico Romania Viet Nam
Brazil
Slovak Republic Greece Indonesia R2 = 0.28
Malta
0.65 Hungary Korea Georgia United Arab Emirates
Qatar
Algeria
Turkey Tunisia
0.60
0.55
0.50
0.7 0.8 0.9 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Women among STEM graduates (%)
Source: G. and D.C. Geary (2018), “The Gender-Equality Paradox in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education”, Psychological Science, 29/4, 581–593,
https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797617741719
© OECD 2019 PISA in Focus 2019/93 (February) 3Interestingly, in countries with more gender equality, like Sweden and Norway (i.e. those with higher values on the Global Gender
Equality Index), the gender gaps in relative science performance in favour of boys is larger, and fewer women graduate with a university-
level STEM degree than in countries with less gender equality.
Boys are more confident and interested in broad science topics.
PISA also shows that, in 2015, boys’ science self-efficacy was higher than that of girls in 39 out of the 67 participating countries and
economies. Similarly, in 51 countries/economies, boys expressed a stronger interest in broad science topics than girls did. Again, the
study shows that these gender gaps in self-efficacy and interest were particularly strong in countries with greater gender equality.
These differences between boys and girls in relative academic strength, self-efficacy, enjoyment of and interest in science account for a
large proportion of the deficit in women’s STEM graduation rates.
Gender difference in science self-efficacy and the Global Gender Gap Index
0.90
Higher self-efficacy Iceland
among girls
0.85 Norway Finland R2 = 0.39
Trinidad and Tobago
Sweden
Ireland
Thailand Netherlands
United Kingdom
Global Gender Equality Index
0.80 Estonia Switzerland New Zealand
Germany
Slovenia
Costa Rica Denmark
Latvia Lithuania United States
Moldova France
0.75 Belgium Spain
Bulgaria Poland Italy
Colombia Austria Canada
Mexico Portugal Croatia Australia
North Macedonia Chile Luxembourg
0.70 Brazil Israel Singapore
Georgia Romania
Viet Nam Uruguay Czech Republic
Indonesia Peru Greece
Hungary
0.65 Malta
Korea Russia
Qatar Japan
Turkey Algeria Tunisia
Slovak Republic
United Arab Emirates Montenegro
0.60
Lebanon
Jordan
0.55
Higher self-efficacy among boys
0.50
-0.20 -0.10 0 0.10 0.20 0.30 0.40
Gender difference in science self-efficacy
Source: G. and D.C. Geary (2018), “The Gender-Equality Paradox in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education”, Psychological Science, 29/4, 581–593,
https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797617741719
Based on PISA data, more women are expected to pursue careers in STEM fields
than actually do.
The authors used different science proficiency and attitudinal criteria, based on PISA 2015 data, to calculate the share of girls among all
students who could be expected to complete a university STEM degree. The results show that there are far more girls among students
attaining PISA proficiency Level 4 in all three domains (49%, on average across the 67 participating countries and economies) than
women who graduated with a university STEM degree between 2012 and 2015 (28%, on average). Moreover, when the authors further
restricted the pool of students who might complete a STEM university degree to high performers whose enjoyment of science, interest
in science, and science self-efficacy fell in the top half of the international distribution of those attitudes, 41% of that pool were girls.
4 © OECD 2019 PISA in Focus 2019/93 (February)The difference between expected and actual proportions of women among STEM graduates shrank significantly when the authors
further restricted their definition of students expected to be successful in a STEM university programme to those with a relative strength
in science and mathematics, rather than in reading. Using this definition, only one in three girls (34%) was expected to successfully
complete a STEM degree. However, in most countries the percentage of women graduating in a STEM field was still smaller than
expected.
15-year-old girls who could successfully complete a STEM university degree and women
graduating with a STEM university degree
55
On average, across all countries,
28% of women graduated university
with a STEM degree
50 Thailand
Turkey
Girls expected to complete a STEM university degree (%)
45 Croatia Bulgaria
Latvia Qatar
Macao (China) Spain Estonia United Arab Emirates
40 Mexico
Brazil
Slovak Republic Greece
Lithuania Colombia Tunisia
35 Sweden Denmark
Poland
Finland Korea Portugal
Chile Australia Italy
New Zealand Luxembourg
Austria France United Kingdom
30 Belgium
Germany
Netherlands Ireland On average, across all countries, 34% of
Hungary girls at age 15 could successfully complete
United
Norway Costa Rica States a STEM university degree
25
Slovenia
Switzerland Czech Republic
20
In most countries,
the percentage of women
graduating in a STEM field is smaller
15 than what would be expected
10
10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55
Women among STEM graduates (%)
Note: Girls who are expected to complete a university-level STEM degree are those who perform at PISA proficiency Level 4 in science and who are in the top half of the international distribution of
enjoyment, interest and self-efficacy in science.
Source: G. and D.C. Geary (2018), “The Gender-Equality Paradox in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education”, Psychological Science, 29/4, 581–593,
https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797617741719
The bottom line
The study by Stoet and Geary (2018) suggests that students may be influenced in their career choices by their
understanding of their relative academic strengths as well as their confidence and interest in science. Unlike many high-
performing boys, many high-performing girls may not pursue a career in science, even if they are capable of succeeding in
it, because they are likely to be top of the class in non-science subjects too. This means that tackling boys’
underperformance in reading may be just as important to ensure greater representation of women in science careers as
supporting girls’ performance in and attitudes towards STEM subjects.
© OECD 2019 PISA in Focus 2019/93 (February) 5For more information Contact: Tarek Mostafa (tarek.mostafa@oecd.org) See: Stoet, G. and D.C. Geary (2018), “The Gender-Equality Paradox in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education”, Psychological Science, 29/4, 581–593, https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797617741719 Coming next month: Does living in a city make a difference in how and what you learn? This paper is published under the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD. The opinions expressed and the arguments employed herein do not necessarily reflect the official views of OECD member countries. This document, as well as any data and map included herein, are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area. The statistical data for Israel are supplied by and under the responsibility of the relevant Israeli authorities. The use of such data by the OECD is without prejudice to the status of the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem and Israeli settlements in the West Bank under the terms of international law. This work is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO). For specific information regarding the scope and terms of the licence as well as possible commercial use of this work or the use of PISA data please consult Terms and Conditions on www.oecd.org.
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