All STEM fields are not created equal: People and things interests explain gender disparities across STEM fields

Frontiers in Psychology
Rong Su, James Rounds

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 environm...Continue Reading

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Citations

Oct 19, 2016·Science and Engineering Ethics·Diana Bairaktarova, Anna Woodcock
Jun 25, 2016·Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin·Miranda M McIntyre, William G Graziano
Feb 15, 2018·Psychological Science·Gijsbert Stoet, David C Geary
May 23, 2019·Frontiers in Psychology·Bernhard Ertl, Florian G Hartmann
Oct 2, 2019·Frontiers in Psychology·Pedrona SerraAnna Vilanova
Nov 15, 2020·European Journal of Dental Education : Official Journal of the Association for Dental Education in Europe·Jens Laurs Brøndum KaersgaardJohanna Naukkarinen
May 30, 2021·Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education : a Bimonthly Publication of the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology·Kesten BozinovicGoran Bozinovic
Jul 2, 2021·Journal of Experimental Child Psychology·Hili Eidlin LevyOrly Rubinsten

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