Article

Indulging Our Gendered Selves? Sex Segregation by Field of Study in 44 Countries1

January 2009
American Journal of Sociology 114(4):924-76

Source
PubMed

Authors:

Kingston University

Data from 44 societies are used to explore sex segregation by field of study. Contrary to accounts linking socioeconomic modernization to a "degendering" of public-sphere institutions, sex typing of curricular fields is stronger in more economically developed contexts. The authors argue that two cultural forces combine in advanced industrial societies to create a new sort of sex segregation regime. The first is gender-essentialist ideology, which has proven to be extremely resilient even in the most liberal-egalitarian of contexts; the second is self-expressive value systems, which create opportunities and incentives for the expression of "gendered selves." Multivariate analyses suggest that structural features of postindustrial labor markets and modern educational systems support the cultivation, realization, and display of gender-specific curricular affinities.

Dimensões da estratificação horizontal de gênero no ensino superior brasileiro

Thesis

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Jan 2020

Bianca Souza Bernardino

Esta dissertação de mestrado investiga as dimensões da estratificação horizontal de gênero no ensino superior brasileiro. Entendendo as desigualdades entre homens e mulheres enquanto desigualdades categóricas, observam-se o acesso desigual de gênero em determinadas hierarquias estabelecidas no interior do sistema de ensino superior do Brasil. Foram analisadas em particular como as desigualdades associadas às hierarquias do ensino superior variam conforme as combinações e as interações entre gênero e origem social dos indivíduos. Utilizaram-se os microdados do censo do Exame Nacional de Desempenho dos Estudantes (Enade) referente ao ciclo dos anos de 2015, 2016 e 2017. As desigualdades de gênero no ensino superior acontecem para todos os grupos de origem social concluindo esta etapa educacional, porém as interações entre origem social e gênero fazem com que as discrepâncias se intensifiquem entre aqueles com desvantagem de origem e se reduzam entre os que possuem vantagens de origem. Nas regiões brasileiras Sul e Sudeste as diferenças de gênero tendem a serem maiores. Palavras-chave: Ensino superior. Estratificação horizontal. Desigualdade de gênero

Gender typicality of occupational aspirations among immigrant and native youth: the role of gender ideology, educational aspirations, and work values

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Jun 2023

The gender typicality of adolescents' occupational aspirations helps sustain occupational segregation, ultimately contributing to maintain gender stratification. According to sociological and psychological perspectives, adolescents develop occupational aspirations by drawing on their gender beliefs and work-related values. Yet few empirical studies have examined the contribution of these value orientations specifically to the gender typicality of occupational aspirations. Moreover, although children from immigrant backgrounds make up an ever-increasing share of school-age students, there is scant evidence on the gender typicality of their occupational aspirations relative to those of their majority peers. This study investigates variations in the gender typicality of occupational aspirations among adolescents from immigrant and non-immigrant backgrounds at around age 16. It also explores how the gender typicality of different groups' aspired occupations relates to differences in gender ideologies, in educational aspirations, and in the importance attributed to three work values: the possibility to earn high income, to help others, and to think and solve problems. Drawing on a harmonized survey from England, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden, the analysis uses a sample of 8,574 adolescents, including 1,510 girls and 1,336 boys from immigrant backgrounds. Multinomial logistic regressions estimated the associations with aspired occupations, classified as masculine, integrated, feminine or ultrafeminine based on the proportion of women working in them. Results indicate that boys and girls of immigrant origin aspired to somewhat less gender-typical occupations than their majority peers. Among girls, these differences would be even larger if they were not suppressed by the more traditional gender ideologies held by girls from immigrant backgrounds. In terms of mediating mechanisms, our findings suggest that more ambitious educational aspirations may partly explain these differences. These findings indicate that distinguishing between multiple dimensions of adolescents' work-related values hint at different underlying mechanisms in the formation of adolescents' occupational aspirations.

Do women's empowerment and self-expression values change adolescents' gendered occupational expectations? Longitudinal evidence against the gender-equality paradox from 26 European countries

Article

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Jun 2023

Despite the increases in women's educational attainment in recent decades, female labor market participation and labor market returns are still lower than those of their male counterparts. Among the main factors explaining this persistence of economic inequality is the persistently gendered nature of occupational expectations, which results in gender segregation of labor. In this paper, we describe how gender-specific adolescents' occupational expectations change over time (2006-2018) and how women's empowerment and cultural norms might influence gender-specific occupational expectations. Against the backdrop of the research on the gender-equality paradox and from a comparative perspective, we focus on national and institutional characteristics to investigate how individual and national factors explain gendered occupational expectations. We answer our research questions by applying a two-step multilevel model with fixed effects. For this, we used PISA data and merged them with state-level information from 26 European countries. We add to existing research by making three contributions. First, we describe the changes in occupational expectations over time within European countries by looking at the gender composition of the desired occupation and distinguishing three categories (gender-typical, gender-balanced, and gender-atypical). Second, we investigate the relationship between national characteristics and the evolution of gendered occupational expectations separately by gender to reveal gender-specific mechanisms. Third, by using data from two-time points, we explore which national-level changes lead to changes in students' occupational expectations. Our first descriptive results show that the patterns of how students' occupational expectations change over time differ remarkably between countries. In 2018 in some countries, students' occupational expectations became more segregated while in others the number of students with gender-balanced or gender-atypical expectations increased. Our fixed effects models show that women's empowerment and self-expression value explained variance over time. For example, women's empowerment measured via an increase in women's employment and participation in parliament led to less gender-typical occupational expectations among girls and boys. Similarly, a rise in self-expression values led to less gender-typical occupational expectations, again for both boys and girls. Remarkably, our results do not verify the gender-equality paradox for occupational expectations, as is the case in previous cross-sectional analyses.

Does the gender-equality paradox hold on the micro level? An assessment of the effect of household wealth on gendered math intentions for 60 countries

Article

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Jun 2023

Wilfred Uunk

The Gender-Equality Paradox (GEP) describes the phenomenon that the gender gap in the preference for and choice of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors is larger in more affluent and gender-egalitarian societies. GEP has theoretically been explained by greater economic opportunities in affluent societies for gendered self-realization, yet the literature lacks a test of this explanation on the individual level. This study tests (a) whether household wealth is associated with a greater male-favorable gender gap in student's math intentions, (b) whether this association, if any, is different in size and shape in more affluent and less affluent countries, and (c) whether household wealth can account for GEP regarding math intentions. Multilevel regression analyses of 15-year-old students' intentions to study math rather than language from 60 countries of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2012 display that household wealth is only weakly and positively related to girls' and boys' math intentions and does not increase or decrease the gender gap in math intentions. This pattern of household wealth effects does not differ between more affluent and less affluent countries, and household wealth cannot account for GEP regarding math intentions. These findings underline that the economic need/opportunity interpretation of GEP does not hold on the micro level and requires further research into the drivers of GEP.

Gender Differences in Collaborative Problem-Solving Skills in a Cross-Country Perspective

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Apr 2023

Effective collaborative problem solving comprises cognitive dimensions, in which men tend to outperform women, and social dimensions in which women tend to outperform men. We extend research on between-country differences in gender gaps by considering collaborative problem solving and its association with two indicators of societal-level gender inequality. The first indicator reflects women's underrepresentation in the labor market and politics. The second reflects women's underrepresentation in stereotypically masculine fields and men's underrepresentation in stereotypically feminine fields among university students. We use cross-country evidence on collaborative problem-solving skills among 15-year-old students from 44 countries (N = 343,326) who participated in the 2015 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Girls outperform boys in collaborative problem solving in all countries. Gender gaps in collaborative problem solving in favor of girls are less pronounced in countries where women are especially underrepresented in the labor market and politics but more pronounced in countries where men and women are more likely to conform to gender stereotypes in selecting a field of study at university. Societal-level gender equality plays a bigger role in explaining between-country differences in achievement in domains with a gender gap in favor of girls—such as collaborative problem solving and, to a lesser extent, reading—and a smaller role in explaining between-country differences in achievement in domains with a gender gap in favor of boys—such as mathematics.

The gendering of tech selves: Aspirations for computing jobs among Jewish and Arab/Palestinian adolescents in Israel

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Apr 2023
Tech Soc

Gender and Science: A Trial of Suspects Guilty for Causing Women’s Underrepresentation in Science Careers

Chapter

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Jan 2016

Heather Hofmeister

Written as if a courtroom drama, the evidence is presented of reasons why women are underrepresented in science. It begins: JUDGE: Our trial today is to evaluate the case of the overproportion of men in science careers. Are women absent from science because of their individual (micro-level) characteristics, such as a lack of interest or skill, or due to issues on the meso or macro level? To allow maximum evidence to the courtroom, we define science broadly, including all academic fields, with a focus on natural science, mathematics, engineering, and technology where women are especially likely to exit or never join. I now invite opening statements from the prosecution and defense.

Skills and adult educational choice: Gender (in)equality in a new form of Swedish vocational education

Chapter

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Mar 2023

When gender is more likely to predict pay via self‐enhancement values and working hours: The role of country's level of gender inequality

Article

Mar 2023

Building upon situational strength and biosocial constructionist theories, we test the indirect effect of gender on pay via self‐enhancement values (e.g. power and achievement) and working hours. We also examine the moderating role of country‐level inequality on that mediated link. The results of multilevel regressions with 16,352 respondents nested in 28 European countries support the hypotheses that men are more likely to prioritise self‐enhancement values, to work more hours than women and consequently receive higher earnings. The indirect effect of gender on pay via self‐enhancement values and working hours was stronger for gender‐equal countries. The link between gender and working hours was moderated by country‐level inequality. In gender‐equal countries, the differences in working hours for men and women were larger than in gender‐unequal countries. We discuss the implications of our findings for creating policies that promote gender equality in salary.

Multidimensional Gender Ideologies Across Europe: Evidence From 36 Countries

Article

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Feb 2023

In this paper, we use the “gender as a social structure” framework to assess macro-, interactional-, and micro-level mechanisms explaining the stalled revolution in gender ideologies. Using the European Values Study 2008 data and latent class analysis, we look at the spread of gender ideologies and examine their association with national levels of gendered ascription of work and care roles, work–family compatibility, social inequality and societal affluence, individual characteristics, and cross-level interactions with gender and education in 36 (post-)industrialized countries. By including a large number of Central, Eastern, and South-Eastern European countries, we provide a new and comprehensive picture of the gender ideology landscapes of Europe, reflected in two unidimensional classes—egalitarian and traditional—and four multidimensional classes, covering more than 60 percent of respondents—family oriented, choice egalitarian, intensive motherhood, and neotraditional. By modeling key features of macro-level variation, we show how the spread of gender ideologies is associated with distinct contextual conditions. We consolidate previous findings on multidimensional gender ideologies, which were based on fewer countries.

Predicting cross-national sex differences in large-scale assessments of students' reading literacy, mathematics, and science achievement: Evidence from PIRLS and TIMSS

Article

Full-text available

Jul 2023
INTELLIGENCE

Causes of sex differences in educational achievement have been controversially discussed in the extant literature. It has been speculated that differing prosperity and equality of opportunities may be linked to these differences, but conclusive empirical evidence for such effects is unavailable. Here, we present evidence for sex differences in international large-scale assessments of reading literacy, mathematics, and science across 16 cohorts from 1995 to 2019. Our analyses of PIRLS and TIMSS reading literacy, mathematics, and science achievement data (N = 3,999,062; 90 countries) showed consistent advantages for girls in reading literacy (d range: −0.02 to 0.66). For mathematics and science this pattern was less unambiguous, yielding non-trivial effects in both directions (d ranges: −0.44 to 0.36 and − 0.50 to 0.46, respectively). Sex differences in all three domains were more pronounced in more egalitarian countries (β range 0.16 to 0.20). Higher national prosperity and educational investment predicted larger sex differences favoring fourth grade boys in mathematics and science (β range: 0.07 to 0.39) and became less meaningful with increasing student ages (β range for eighth graders: 0.17 to 0.21). In all, our findings suggest that influences of economic macro-indicators on sex differences in educational achievement are differentiated according to subject, indicating larger sex differences in mathematics and science in more egalitarian and prosperous countries.

Predicting cross-national sex differences in large-scale assessments of students' reading literacy, mathematics, and science achievement: Evidence from PIRLS and TIMSS

Article

Jul 2023
INTELLIGENCE

Gender-based disparities and biases in science: An observational study of a virtual conference

Article

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Jun 2023
PLOS ONE

Success in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) remains influenced by race, gender, and socioeconomic status. Here, we focus on the impact of gender on question-asking behavior during the 2021 JOBIM virtual conference (Journées Ouvertes en Biologie et Mathématiques). We gathered quantitative and qualitative data including : demographic information, question asking motivations, live observations and interviews of participants. Quantitative analyses include unprecedented figures such as the fraction of the audience identifying as LGBTQIA+ and an increased attendance of women in virtual conferences. Although parity was reached in the audience, women asked half as many questions as men. This under-representation persisted after accounting for seniority of the asker. Interviews of participants highlighted several barriers to oral expression encountered by women and gender minorities : negative reactions to their speech, discouragement to pursue a career in research, and gender discrimination/sexual harassment. Informed by the study, guidelines for conference organizers have been written. The story behind the making of this study has been highlighted in a Nature Career article.

Exploring the Gender Gap in Teleworking from Home. The Roles of Worker’s Characteristics, Occupational Positions and Gender Equality in Europe

Article

Full-text available

May 2023
SOC INDIC RES

Unlabelled: Previous research suggests an under-representation of women among teleworkers before the Covid-19 pandemic. However, we know little about whether such a gender gap was substantial, and whether it could be explained by occupational gender segregation. We explore whether a gender gap in regularly teleworking existed in the EU-28 and analyse its possible constituents, drawing on data from the European Working Conditions Survey 2015. To form a group of potential teleworkers, the analytical sample was restricted to employees who made use of information and communication technology (N ≈ 16,000). Country fixed effects regression and multilevel models were applied. The results show that women were under-represented among teleworkers compared to men, also when occupational gender segregation is taken into account; the remaining gender gap in telework is estimated at 10%. For women, working part-time and working in the private sector was associated with lower incidences of telework, but not for men. Country characteristics explain a small but significant share of telework incidence. In countries that rank high on the Gender Equality Index and have a large public sector, telework was widespread, whereas it was less present in countries with higher shares of women in the fields of science and engineering. The findings support the view that the gender gap in teleworking from home is a matter of historically grown gender inequality. Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11205-023-03133-6.

The Emergence of Gender-Specific Competence Patterns and Decision Making During the Course of Educational and Job Careers in Germany

Chapter

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Apr 2023

Starting at the earliest phase in the educational career, our analyses show that there are already gender differences in mathematical competencies at early preschool age, but against the usual expectations, in favour of girls. In primary school, the early gender-specific differences are then reinforced: Boys perform better in mathematics and girls in German language. Nevertheless, these relative advantages in each domain compensate for each other, so there are no significant differences in the overall performance. Concerning the transition from secondary school to vocational training or higher education there was some evidence from the data that among graduates, young women tend to opt more often for vocational training than young men, whereas the men more often choose to study at universities for applied science than women. We did not find gender differences regarding university entry: Women do not aim lower with respect to university entry at similar grades than boys. Finally, our results show the important role of mothers in shaping the level of education of their daughters. In summary, based on our analyses the expected cumulative differences among boys and girls and men and women over the life course appear to be in accordance with the so-called Matthew effect hypothesis: Small gender differences at preschool age are getting bigger over the school career, not so much with regard to competence trajectories but with regard to the chosen subjects in schools and fields of study at vocational training and tertiary education.

Women’s aversion to majors that (seemingly) require systemizing skills causes gendered field of study choice

Article

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Apr 2023

Benita Combet

This article examines whether gender differences in preferences for field of study characteristics can explain gendered major choice. Specifically, this study focuses on a broad range of subject characteristics that are often simultaneously present: systemizing skills required (math intensity, reasoning style, affinity for technical work tasks), future job characteristics corresponding with the male breadwinner model (materialism, work–family compatibility), and characteristics invoked by behavioural preferences (risky situations and a competitive environment). To disentangle these co-occurring characteristics and minimize the influence of other factors in the decision-making process (e.g. admission likelihood), this study uses a choice experiment incorporated in the Swiss panel study TREE. In it, a representative sample of high school students choose their preferred field of study from two artificial fields with varying characteristics. The results show the largest gender differences in preferences for characteristics related to reasoning style (abstract versus creative) and affinity for work tasks (technical versus social), and smaller differences for math intensity, competitive climate, and work–family compatibility, while there are no gender differences in preferences for materialistic characteristics (salary and prestige). Unexpectedly, the gender differences are primarily caused by female students’ preferences, while male students are neutral towards most characteristics.

Skills and occupational sex segregation in Europe

Chapter

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Mar 2023

Night eating syndrome among university students: are aspects of academic life associated with eating disorders?

Article

Full-text available

Aug 2023

Introduction: the critical period in the lives of college adults implies lifestyle changes such as reducing physical activity and adopting unhealthy eating habits that can result in increased body fat. Thus, college students may represent a population at increased risk for Night Eating Syndrome. Objective: to analyze aspects of university students’ academic life, work and housing that could be associated with Night Eating Syndrome. Methods: cross-sectional study carried out with 900 students from Architecture, Engineering, Medicine and Psychology courses at a higher education institution located in Cajazeiras, Paraíba, Brazil. Self-administered questionnaires were used for data collection: the Night Eating instrument Questionnaire (NEQ) to quantify Night Eating Syndrome (NCS) behaviors and a form for variables on demographic, health, academic life, work and housing aspects. Results: the prevalence of NES determined by the NEQ≥25 score was 16.8%. In the Engineering course, the prevalence of SCN was higher in women than in men, and in the Psychology course, it was higher in men than in women. Among students with a job and who lived at home, the prevalence of the syndrome was higher for those who worked in the afternoon and lower for those who worked at night. Conclusion: the prevalence of NES found among Brazilian university students was high (16.8%), particularly in two situations: (1) being enrolled in an undergraduate course with a predominance of students of the other sex; and (2) live with parents and work in the afternoon. These observations may be helpful in identifying subpopulations of students at increased risk for eating disorders.

Saudi Arabia's Post-Oil Economic Prospects: Economic diversification, entrepreneurship and women's empowerment

Preprint

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Aug 2023

The GCC countries, including Saudi Arabia, have faced significant challenges due to the significant drop in oil prices since 2014, and one important challenge is to limit the financing of their development model based on the exploitation of oil surpluses to achieve comprehensive social and economic development. Another challenge is how to get out of this impasse, and what are the solutions and policies that get the GCC countries out of the curse of natural resources to economic diversification in order to build a more sustainable economy that provides a stable life for the current generation without compromising the capabilities of future generations. This is what this study tried to answer, as it aimed to provide a development model in Saudi Arabia that contributes to getting out of the current oil crisis, and far from researching the causes of the sharp decline in oil prices, which are mostly subject to economic and geopolitical factors that are difficult to control, the current study provides a model that depends on exploiting Saudi Arabia's capabilities through four basic pillars: The trend towards economic diversification, entrepreneurship, and women's economic empowerment are all these changes in light of public sector reform and governance. The proposed study model was theoretically tested through a comprehensive review of the relevant economic and social literature, and then the study applied this model in Saudi Arabia, using a time series that extends since (2001–2020) and constitutes a total of (20) years. Based on econometric methods in collecting and analyzing data and ensuring its validity, and building representative models of the relationship between the study model with its four pillars and economic growth: The study found a number of results indicating a positive impact of economic diversification, entrepreneurship, and public corporate governance on the economic growth of Saudi Arabia, with mixed results on the impact of women's empowerment on economic growth, and based on those results, a set of recommendations were built related to getting out of the oil crisis, encouraging economic diversification and entrepreneurship, and women's economic empowerment.

Structural Change and Gender Sectoral Segregation in Sub-Saharan Africa

Preprint

Full-text available

Aug 2023

Izaskun Zuazu

College Selectivity, Choice of Major, and Post-College Earnings

Article

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Aug 2023

College choice and choice of major are the most important decisions for future earnings. It is still unclear, however, what makes a greater difference—college or major—or whether a choice of college matters more for some majors, but not the others. Using cross-classified models and College Scorecard data, I show that a discipline is more consequential for future earnings than a college. The effect of STEM is substantial but is less pronounced at institutions with higher overall median earnings. The effect of college selectivity on earnings is more pronounced for non-STEM disciplines. Institutional characteristics—such as tuition, shares of graduates receiving different forms of financial aid, institutional size and location, and type of college—correlate with earnings of graduates. Racial and gender composition of an educational program correlate with expected earnings of its graduates even after control for other institutional and disciplinary characteristics. Models presented here provide a better understanding of the effect of college and major choices on future earnings.

Liderança em Tempos de Crise: Refl exos da Pandemia de COVID-19 sob a Perspectiva de Gênero

Article

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Jan 2023

Ligia Carolina Oliveira-Silva

Considering the COVID-19 pandemic, the study of how leaders act in times of crisis is essential to understand their impacts on society, as well as on ways of leading, which brings to light examples of how leaders manage the pandemic situation and how much leaders’ gender infl uence this. The purpose of this article is to carry out a theoretical-conceptual discussion about leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic from a gender perspective, analyzing how the consequences of the pandemic can help question prevailing models of leadership. This study analyzes the performance of leaders during the coronavirus crisis and the phenomena that involve the exercise of leadership, discussing how the search for gender equity in positions of power contributes to the post-pandemic world. It is urgent that we re-signify the concept of leadership and its surrounding culture, which requires studies that analyze exclusion phenomena and that consider the scarcity of women and minority groups in leadership positions .Keywords: Leadership, COVID-19, crisis, gender, women.

Trainers' Attitude versus Practices: A Must for Revitalizing Pre-service Teacher Education in Nigeria

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2023

The main aim of this study was to investigate teacher trainees' assessment of teacher trainers' attitude to work and teaching practices in Akwa Ibom State University, Akwa Ibom State. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. The population of the study consisted of 400 level students (198 science teacher trainees) in the Faculty of Education in the study area. Simple random Sampling was used for the study. The sample of 174 science teacher trainees drawn from the Faculty of Education was used. The research instruments developed, validated and used for the study were Questionnaire on Teacher Trainers' Attitude to Work QTTAW (∝=0.96) and Questionnaire on Teacher Trainers' Teaching practices QTTTP (∝ =0.79). The data collected were analyzed using, Mean, Standard deviation, Frequency count, Independent t-test and Pearson Product Moment Correlation. The result obtained revealed that the nature of teacher trainers' attitude to work was not encouraging; the pattern of teacher trainers' teaching practices was fairly good, teacher trainers' attitude to work was negatively related to their teaching practices. There was no difference in the rating of male and female teacher trainees' of teacher trainers' attitude to work. Also, there was no significant influence of gender on teacher trainees' ratings of teacher trainers' attitude to work. It was also recommended among others that teacher trainers should improve on their attitude to work and teaching practices.

Simpson's Gender-Equality Paradox

Preprint

Jul 2023

Several crosscountry examinations have found larger gender differences in Western countries. More lately, countries' gender equality has been correlated with such gender differences, and it is sometimes argued that gender equality may paradoxically cause men and women to diverge. However, this gender-equality paradox has primarily been examined with this crosscountry methodology, so it possible that other cultural differences, including differences in data quality, are more directly influential. Here, we reanalyze the results from multiple studies on the gender-equality paradox with country-level data available. We find that gender differences more strongly co-vary with cultural regions and data quality, and that controlling for cultural regions consistently causes the association with gender equality to drop to non-significance. Similarly, controlling for our data quality indicators strongly attenuates the paradox. Conversely, cultural regions and data quality explains gender differences beyond gender equality. Further, when controlling for language within Protestant Western countries, which are more culturally comparable, higher gender equality was associated with smaller gender differences in personality. These results challenge the claim that gender equality causes gender differences, suggests it is rather an example of a Simpson's paradox, and indicates that the cross-cultural association is confounded with other cultural differences, and with data quality.

Gender differences in the intention to study math increase with math performance

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2023

Even though females currently outnumber males in higher education, they remain largely underrepresented in math-related fields of study, with no sign of improvement during the past decades. To better understand which students drive this underrepresentation, we use PISA 2012 data on 251,120 15-year-old students in 61 countries to analyse boys’ and girls’ educational intentions along the ability distribution on math assessment tests. We analyze the percentages of boys and girls intending to pursue math-related studies or careers as a function of math performance. First, we show that for both boys and girls, there is a positive and linear relation between the probability of intending to pursue math and math performance. Second, the positive relation is stronger among boys than among girls. In particular, the gender gap in student intentions to pursue math-related studies or careers is close to zero among the poorest performers in math and increases steadily with math performance. Third, as a consequence, the gender gap in math performance, to the detriment of girls, is larger among students intending to pursue math than in the general student population.

On the effect of gender on secondary school students’ causal attributions to choose or abandon physics & chemistry

Article

Jun 2023
CHEM EDUC RES PRACT

Secondary school students’ early choices related to staying in the science track define their future decisions to choose chemistry at college. This investigation aims at analyzing the role of gender in students’ causal attributions to choose or abandon chemistry when it first becomes optional in the Spanish educational system. Our analyses uncovered a relevant effect of gender in the students’ decision, boys being more likely to choose physics & chemistry when they face, for the first time, the possibility of continuing or opting out the subject. Besides, students’ causal attributions to the subject relationship with mathematics and to friends are affected by gender regardless of the students’ level of motivation. In turn, there is a gender effect in attributions to friends and media only in the case of highly-motivated students. A multinomial logistic regression model revealed that gender is a strong predictor of the students’ decision. The regression model also uncovered a significant interaction effect between gender and attributions to the subject relationship with mathematics, girls becoming less likely to choose physics & chemistry when the latter increase. Our results highlight the need of working on the students’ and families’ stereotypes and propose gender-balanced teaching models to close the gap between girls’ and boys' attitudes, motivation, and anxiety towards mathematics in the context of physics & chemistry teaching and learning.

Gendered Education and Labor Market Trajectories in Switzerland

Chapter

May 2023

Does the follow-your-passions ideology cause greater academic and occupational gender disparities than other cultural ideologies?

Article

Full-text available

May 2023
J PERS SOC PSYCHOL

Five preregistered studies (N = 1934) demonstrate that the prevalent U.S. ideology to "follow your passions" perpetuates academic and occupational gender disparities compared to some other cultural ideologies. Study 1 shows that the follow-your-passions ideology is commonly used by U.S. students in making academic choices. Studies 2-5 find that making the follow-your-passions ideology salient causes greater academic and occupational gender disparities compared to the resources ideology (i.e., the idea that one should pursue a field that leads to high income and job security). In Study 4, the follow-your-passions ideology causes greater gender disparities even when compared to a cultural ideology that aligns more with the female gender role (i.e., communal ideology). In Study 5, a moderated mediation analysis supports the hypothesis that gender disparities are explained by women's versus men's greater tendency to draw upon female role-congruent selves when the follow-your-passions ideology is salient compared to when the resources ideology is salient. Drawing upon female role-congruent selves remains a significant mediator even when accounting for alternative mediators (e.g., appropriateness of ideology for one's gender). The follow-your-passions ideology may not seem explicitly gendered, but it causes greater academic and occupational gender disparities compared to some other cultural ideologies. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Gender Inclusion/Exclusion in Science Exhibitions: Theoretical Framework and Practical Implications

Chapter

Apr 2023

A realisation is growing among science museum practitioners and researchers that quick fixes or one-off initiatives cannot accomplish engaging a broader diversity of publics in museum activities. Rather, exclusion mechanisms in science museums often are subtle, are ingrained institutionally, and may be beyond the reach of individual staff members, requiring concerted efforts on multiple levels to counteract them. Here, we analyse the current situation with particular focus on gender and science exhibitions. We show how museums can locate gendered and gendering mechanisms that co-determine science museum exhibition design and experience in a hierarchy of levels, ranging from the level of humanity all the way to the individual museum visitor. We give examples of how these mechanisms may interact to produce gender exclusion. We conclude by discussing implications of the framework for research and practice on gender inclusion in science museums and offering suggestions for ways to move forward.

A Social Semiotic Analysis of Gender Representations in Biology Textbooks for Upper Secondary Schools in China

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2023
EDUC CHANGE

The gender gap remains an issue in the biological education community. This study explores the extent to which an egalitarian gender ideology, encapsulated in five biological science textbooks for upper secondary schools in China, manifests through representational, interactive and compositional meanings of social semiotic theory. The findings reveal that females in the textbooks tend to be depicted as passive and inferior to males. More males are represented as playing pioneering and leading roles, as opposed to females, who are cast in assistant and subordinate roles in professional activities. The gendered messages delivered have the potential to disempower female students’ career aspirations and adversely regulate their perceptions and projections of gender identities in biological science.

Decline Is Not Inevitable: Changes in Science Identity during the Progression through a U.S. Middle School among Boys and Girls

Article

Full-text available

Feb 2023

In the United States, science capital is important for navigating many aspects of life. Yet during middle school, science interest declines more for girls than boys. It is unclear, however, whether science identity also declines during the middle school years and if there are differences by gender. The authors advance prior research by modeling changes in science identity and associations with changes in identity-relevant characteristics using growth curve analyses on four waves of data from 760 middle school youth. For girls and boys, science identity changes over time; about 40 percent of the variance is within-person change, with the remainder explained by aggregate between-person differences. The associations of all identity-relevant characteristics with science identity are not significantly different for girls and boys, yet declines in average values of identity-relevant characteristics are larger for girls than boys.

Socioemotional wealth and family feuds: corporate social responsibility as insurance

Article

Sep 2023
MANAGE DECIS

Purpose This study explores family firms' ex ante conflict management strategies to preserve their socioemotional wealth (SEW) under predictable conflict through the succession process. Specifically, the authors examine how family firms leverage the insurance-like benefits of corporate social responsibility (CSR) to mitigate the threat of foreseeable family feuds among the sons of firms' family heads. Design/methodology/approach The authors focus on the charitable donations pledged by Korean family business groups (chaebols). Using the data of 62 chaebols with generalized least squares (GLS) models, the authors analyze 711 observations from 2005 to 2017. Findings The authors find a positive relationship between the number of sons of a family firm's head and the firm's CSR activities such as spending on charitable donations. Furthermore, the number of daughters of heads in executive positions strengthens such a positive relationship, whereas the number of business and political marriage ties weakens this relationship. Practical implications Family heads of family businesses may leverage CSR activities and marriage ties to elite families interchangeably to ward off negative impacts from foreseeable family feuds and preserve their SEW. Thus, a policy-based incentive for CSR that encourages more family heads to use CSR as insurance would serve the public interest. Originality/value The authors contribute to the family business literature by suggesting that CSR activities can be used by family firms as an instrument to mitigate foreseeable damage to the SEW caused by family feuds. The authors also shed new light on CSR research by finding that marriage ties to elite families may reduce the strategic value of CSR activities.

Gender Segregation in Civic Life: Women’s and Men’s Involvement in Voluntary Associations

Article

Sep 2023

The pervasive persistence of gender segregation has been documented in a myriad of social settings, implying that women and men primarily encounter peers of their own gender in daily life. While voluntary associations are often praised for their ability to bridge other social divides, previous research indicates substantive gender disparities in voluntary involvement. Yet we still know relatively little about the extent and origins of gender segregation in civic life. In this article, we study gender homophily in voluntary involvement and examine how structural features of friendship networks and traditional gender norms bring about gender segregation. Employing data from a German panel study (SC6-NEPS), we analyze cross-sectional patterns of gender segregation and run multinomial and binary logistic regressions to model joining and quitting transitions. Our results indicate substantive gender segregation across and within types of voluntary associations. The overall gender segregation is driven by homophilous transitions into associational contexts, not by selective quitting decisions. Gender-segregated friendship networks partially explain the tendency to join organizations dominated by one’s own gender. Traditional gender norms are associated with more homophilous joining transitions among men, but not among women. Overall, these findings imply that civic life perpetuates the structural significance of gender.

Opportunities for Learning

Chapter

Sep 2017

Adam Gamoran

The concept of opportunities for learning refers to the content and quantity of curricular materials, activities, and assignments that students encounter in their classrooms. This notion is central to a sociological understanding of how schools operate. Major lines of research on opportunities for learning have examined curricular differentiation through ability grouping and tracking, and international comparisons of educational achievement. Within countries, differences in opportunities for learning are commonly linked to students' social and economic backgrounds, and consequently play a role in the reproduction of inequality. Opportunities for learning have come to increased salience in the current context of US education policy, as the emphasis on accountability has led to recognition that improving student learning rests substantially on improving the quality of teaching they encounter in classrooms.

“The US is still more accepting and respecting of us”: Rethinking the “opt‐out” myth among highly educated Chinese immigrant stay‐at‐home mothers

Article

Aug 2023

Jialin Li

Scholars have long been fascinated by the push‐pull discourses that have been used to account for the work‐life (in)balance of college‐educated, stay‐at‐home mothers in the United States. However, the entire conversation about the opting‐out myth excludes the increasing population of highly educated, immigrant mothers. Meanwhile, international migration literature contends that highly educated, skilled, immigrant women experience an unexpected downward career mobility. However, among all the studies, the term motherhood and housewife are largely framed as a threat and source of frustration. In response to these two bodies of literature, I conducted semi‐structured interviews with 28 highly educated, Chinese stay‐at‐home mothers in the United States between August 2019 and July 2021. By adopting an intersectional lens, I argue that although the neoliberal, immigration structures have indeed caused career downward mobility among highly educated, Chinese immigrants, we should not assume that the current, new generation of Chinese women unanimously interprets full‐time motherhood simply as a disadvantage. Instead, I have found out that, due to social and cultural differences, these mothers all felt compelled to be stay‐at‐home immigrant mothers in the United States where they believe they would receive more respect and acceptance, and feel more liberation.

Does Feminization Always Lead to Declines in Earnings? Evidence from China’s Marketization (1988 to 2013)

Article

Jul 2023

Meiying Li

Seeking STEM: The Causal Impact of Need-Based Grant Aid on Undergraduates’ Field of Study

Article

Jun 2023

Gender, self-efficacy and attrition from STEM programmes: evidence from Danish survey and registry data

Article

Jun 2023

Chutes and Ladders: Gendered Systems of Privilege and Marginalization in University Science Teaching

Article

Jun 2023

Katherine Doerr

Bildung und berufliche Souveränität

Book

Full-text available

May 2023

Berufliche Souveränität ist ein wichtiges Entwicklungsziel für jeden Menschen und bezeichnet Kompetenzen der selbstbestimmten Berufswahl und -ausübung. Individuelle Ausbildungsreife, Berufswahlbereitschaft und -kompetenz sind Voraussetzungen für eine erfolgreiche Berufsorientierung, die ein wesentlicher Bestandteil der beruflichen Souveränität ist. Ziel einer gelungenen lebensbegleitenden Berufsorientierung sollte die Übereinstimmung von Interessen und Fähigkeiten einer Person auf der einen Seite mit den Bedarfen des Arbeitsmarktes und den Anforderungen beruflicher Tätigkeiten auf der anderen Seite sein. Der erfolgreiche Abgleich dieser Komponenten mündet schließlich in die erfolgreiche Berufswahl beziehungsweise Berufsanpassung. Der Aktionsrat Bildung zeigt aufgrund einer empirisch abgesicherten Bestandsaufnahme, welche personalen und strukturellen Voraussetzungen für den lebenslangen Prozess einer gelingenden Berufsorientierung notwendig sind. Es wird bildungsphasenübergreifend dargelegt, wie berufliche Souveränität gefördert und weiterentwickelt werden kann. Aus seinen Analysen leitet der Aktionsrat Bildung zentrale Handlungsempfehlungen für die politischen Entscheidungsträger ab.

Tools at the Service of Public Administrations to Fight Digital Gender Inequalities

Article

May 2023

Juan Francisco Rodríguez Ayuso

This article seeks to highlight how the emergence of the information society and, with it, the New Information and Communication Technologies, despite their benefits, have also brought with them important challenges in the fight against gender discrimination. Moreover, after their consolidation, we can speak of a new digital gender gap that has certainly been intense in rural environments, which are particularly disadvantaged in the implementation of virtual reality. For this reason, mechanisms are established to fight against this new form of discrimination, which should be articulated primarily by the Public Administrations as guarantors of equality among all citizens and the fight for the satisfaction of the general interest, which should only result in the well-being of all. Consequently, the paper begins with a brief introduction that highlights the current context and then goes on to highlight the regulatory guidelines for achieving gender equality in the field of the information society, as well as some relevant initiatives carried out by public bodies, concluding with possible measures to be adopted by the Administrations in favour of gender equality in the digital environment, in which, together with the legal provisions, several public initiatives in favour of the integration of women in the digital environment will also be taken into consideration, trying to reduce digital gender gaps, highlighting, in this respect, the IV Plan for Equal Opportunities between Women and Men 2003-2006 or, of course, the most recent and current, III Strategic Plan for the Effective Equality of Women and Men 2022-2025.

Higher education and high-wage gender inequality

Article

Mar 2023
SOC SCI RES

Over the past 60 years, we have witnessed a relocation of gender wage inequality. Whereas the largest wage gaps were once concentrated among lower-paid, lower-educated workers, today these wage gaps sit among the highest-paid, highly-educated workers. Given this reordering of gender wage inequality and the centrality of college graduates to total inequality trends, in this article, we assess the contribution of higher education mechanisms to top-end gender inequality. Specifically, we use Census and ACS data along with unique decomposition models to assess the extent to which two mechanisms rooted in higher education-bachelor's-level fields of study and the attainment of advanced degrees-can account for the gender wage gap across the wage distribution. Results from these decomposition models show that while these explanatory mechanisms fare well among bottom and middle wages, their explanatory power breaks down among the highest-paid college workers. We conclude that women's attainment of "different" education (via fields of study) or "more" education (via advanced degrees) would do little to close the gender wage gaps that are contributing most to contemporary wage inequality trends. We suggest some directions for future research, and we also take seriously the role of discriminatory pay-setting at the top of the wage distribution.

Social norms and gendered occupational choices of men and women: Time to turn the tide?

Article

Apr 2023

We analyze the relationship between social gender norms and adolescents' occupational choices by combining regional votes on constitutional amendments on gender equality with job application data from a large job board for apprenticeships. The results show that adolescent males in regions with stronger traditional social gender norms are more likely to apply for typically male occupations. This finding does not hold for females, suggesting that incentivizing men to break the norms and choose gender‐atypical occupations (e.g., in healthcare) can be even more effective in accelerating advancement toward gender equality in the labor market than incentivizing women to choose STEM occupations.

Field-Specific Ability Beliefs as an Explanation for Gender Differences in Academics’ Career Trajectories: Evidence From Public Profiles on ORCID.org

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2023

Academic fields exhibit substantial levels of gender segregation. Here, we investigated differences in field-specific ability beliefs (FABs) as an explanation for this phenomenon. FABs may contribute to gender segregation to the extent that they portray success as depending on “brilliance” (i.e., exceptional intellectual ability), which is a trait culturally associated with men more than women. Although prior work has documented a relation between academic fields’ FABs and their gender composition, it is still unclear what the underlying dynamics are that give rise to gender imbalances across academia as a function of FABs. To provide insight into this issue, we custom-built a new dataset by combining information from the author-tracking service ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) with information from a survey of U.S. academics across 30 fields. Using this expansive longitudinal dataset (Ns = 86,879 to 364,355), we found that women were underrepresented among those who enter fields with brilliance-oriented FABs and overrepresented among those who exit these fields. We also found that FABs’ association with women’s transitions across academic fields was substantially stronger than their association with men’s transitions. With respect to mechanisms, FABs’ association with gender segregation was partially explained by the fact that women encounter more prejudice in fields with brilliance-oriented FABs. With its focus on the dynamic patterns shaping segregation and its broad scope in terms of geography, career stage, and historical time, this research makes an important contribution toward understanding the factors driving gender segregation in academia.

How Gender Segregation in Higher Education Contributes to Gender Segregation in the U.S. Labor Market

Article

Apr 2023
DEMOGRAPHY

What is the relationship between gender segregation in higher education and gender segregation in the labor market? Using Fossett's (2017) difference-of-means method for calculating segregation indices and data from the American Community Survey, we show that approximately 36% of occupational segregation among college-educated workers is associated with gender segregation across 173 fields of study, and roughly 64% reflects gender segregation within fields. A decomposition analysis shows that fields contribute to occupational segregation mainly through endowment effects (men's and women's uneven distribution across fields) than through the coefficient effects (gender differences in the likelihood of entering a male-dominated occupation from the same field). Endowment effects are highest in fields strongly linked to the labor market, suggesting that educational segregation among fields in which graduates tend to enter a limited set of occupations is particularly consequential for occupational segregation. Within-field occupational segregation is higher among heavily male-dominated fields than other fields, but it does not vary systematically by fields' STEM status or field-occupation linkage strength. Assuming the relationship between field segregation and occupational segregation is at least partly causal, these results imply that integrating higher education (e.g., by increasing women's representation in STEM majors) will reduce but not eliminate gender segregation in labor markets.

Unpacking the logics of gendered educational choices: 10th graders’ evaluation of appropriate educational tracks

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2023

This study aims to unpack one element of the logics of gendered educational choices, namely how cultural beliefs about gender can shape young people’s judgements about gendered educational tracks. Through a survey experiment conducted among secondary school students in Oslo, Norway, we assess respondents’ judgements about fictitious students’ “appropriate” educational choices presented through short vignettes. The study investigates how judgements vary according to the gender of the fictitious students, as well as respondents’ gender and their gender essentialist beliefs. The results indicate that devaluation of female-typed work play a role in young people’s judgements about educational tracks. Boys and girls alike seem to award male-typed vocational education and general college preparatory education higher status than female-typed vocational education. Nonetheless, vignette boys are more strongly advised against choosing female-typed vocational programmes than vignette girls with the same characteristics. This pattern is evident regardless of respondents’ essentialist beliefs. Thus, both devaluation and gender stereotypical expectations pull in the same direction for boys, against entering female-typed education in upper secondary school. Furthermore, the findings indicate that gender essentialism works asymmetrically. Respondents with gender essentialist beliefs are more likely to advise girls not to choose male-typed vocational programmes. However, we did not find evidence that respondents, including those who otherwise express gender essentialist beliefs, believe that female-typed vocational educational choices are appropriate for women simply because they are women.

Estratificação Horizontal do Ensino Superior Brasileiro e as Profissões Imperiais: Os Concluintes de Medicina, Engenharia e Direito entre 2009 e 2017

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2024
DADOS-REV CIENC SOC

Leonardo Rodrigues

Resumo O objetivo do artigo é analisar a estratificação horizontal do ensino superior no Brasil com enfoque nos cursos de engenharia, medicina e direito. Pretende-se investigar se essas áreas se diferenciam de acordo com o perfil socioeconômico de seus concluintes e se houve transformações nesse perfil em um período de rápida expansão do sistema de ensino. Resultados obtidos através de modelos multinomiais e de regressão logística indicam que esses cursos apresentam diferentes padrões de desigualdade de acordo com raça, sexo e escolaridade dos pais. O trabalho identificou uma diminuição nas desigualdades para o período analisado, mas com particularidades importantes entre as áreas e entre os tipos institucionais. As análises reforçam as hipóteses de que a estratificação horizontal pode ser um mecanismo de manutenção das desigualdades em períodos de expansão dos sistemas de ensino e que deve variar de acordo com o grupo profissional.

How do Students Choose Their Study Courses? Qualitative Research on Motivational, Gender and Contextual Factors

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2022

The goal of the paper was to investigate, using the qualitative method, how students under¬stand their own process of choosing a study course at the higher education level. This study was grounded in the Eccles et al.’s situated expectancy-value theory. The research questions were the following: 1) What do students recognize as the main reasons for their own course choice decision?, 2) How do they perceive the role of important others in their decision to choose a course?, and 3) How do they understand the relationship between gender stereotypes about studies and occupations, and their own course choice? A semi-structured interview was conducted with 44 first-year university students (22 young men and 22 young women). The thematic analysis of the interviews showed that motivational beliefs, important others and gender stereotypes played different roles in the choice of a study course. Subjective values, especially interest, perceived usefulness and cost of effort are recognized as important motiva¬tional influences. Parents, teachers, and especially friends influenced course choices with their advice, information and support. The analysis of gender dimension showed the prevalence of a perception that gender stereotypes did not influence one’s own study course choice. However, when the influence of gender stereotypes was recognized, it was in line with the expectations: students of gender-typical courses stated that they avoided gender non-stereotyped professional choices, while a female student of mechanical engineering described the importance of rejecting stereotypes for her decision to study a typically male course. Practical implications aiming at expanding the spectrum of possible course choices include providing additional information for pupils about study courses and raising their awareness about the influence of gender stereotypes on educational choices.

High Hopes: Gender Trends in Educational Expectations for Graduate and Professional School, 1976-2019

Article

Feb 2023

Educational expectations have increased over time, with greater increases among young women than men, yet research focused on expectations for post-baccalaureate degrees is limited. We investigate young men’s and women’s plans to attend graduate or professional school using Monitoring the Future data from 12th graders for 1976 to 2019, focusing on how academic performance and work and family values may be associated with post-baccalaureate expectations. We find that young women’s expectations for graduate or professional school began to exceed young men’s in the early 1990s and continued to do so afterward, although expectations for post-baccalaureate schooling declined some in recent years, especially among young men. Results also indicate that the gender gap over time is driven partially by more young women than men with B or lower average grades holding post-baccalaureate expectations. Work values may foster these high expectations, especially for lower-achieving young women. Finally, we examine whether post-baccalaureate expectations translate into higher attainments, and results suggest that higher-achieving students are better positioned to meet their post-baccalaureate expectations. Collectively, our findings suggest that sociocultural factors promoting women’s participation in the public sphere may encourage some young women to form high-level expectations that they are not academically equipped to meet.

Tracing the Gender Confidence Gap in Computing: A Cross-National Meta-Analysis of Gender Differences in Self-Assessed Technological Ability

Article

Mar 2023
SOC SCI RES

MacKenzie A. Christensen

The gender composition of information and communication technology (ICT) fields remain uneven across countries. One explanation is that gender stereotypes lead women to believe that they do not have the same aptitude for ICT fields as men, resulting in a deficit in women's self-assessed tech ability. Yet, studies on ICT confidence document wide variation in both the direction and magnitude of gender differences. This study asks whether there is, in fact, a gendered confidence gap in technological ability. Methods of meta-analysis evaluate gender differences in tech confidence based on the results of 120 effect sizes from 115 studies conducted in 22 countries from 1990 to 2019. While men report higher levels of self-assessed tech abilities compared to women, the gap is narrowing over time. Further, significant cross-national variation undermines essentialist explanations that imply universal sex differences. Rather, results are consistent with theorizing that emphasizes variations in cultural gender beliefs and opportunities.

The Globalization of Women's Status: Consensus/Dissensus in the World Polity

Article

Full-text available

Oct 1999

The amount of attention devoted to women and women's issues has increased dramatically in the last five decades throughout the world. In this article we examine the cultural construction of women that guided such action by analyzing texts that were produced and activities that were undertaken in relation to women by international organizations from 1945 through 1995. We show that the modernist principles of universalism, liberal individualism, and rationality provided the cultural framework for this global project. We compare the ways in which two issues important to women, education and genital mutilation, were constructed by global actors and the implications of this meaning making for action over time. Our analysis reveals an important link between the extent to which an issue is constructed to be consistent with the modernist principles and the extent to which it receives global attention.

Comparative Research on Women's Emplyment

Article

Full-text available

Aug 2002

Women's employment has been widely studied in both Western countries and Eastern Europe. In this article, the most frequently used measurements and descriptions of women's paid work are given, namely, participation rate, number of hours worked, gender segregation, and the gender gap in earnings. Next, three approaches used to study women's employment are discussed: 1. the macro-level approach, which gives a thorough understanding of the influence of the institutional context on women's work; 2. the micro-level approach, which compares individual-level results in a number of countries; and 3. the macro-micro approach, in which the relative importance is shown of institutional and individual level factors. Finally, a review is given of the hypotheses and outcomes of both the institutional level, with welfare regime and family policy playing an important role, and the individual level, which shows that being a mother has an important effect on women's employment in the different countries studied.

Gender as an Organizing Force in Social Relations: Implications for the Future of Inequality

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2006

Cecilia L. Ridgeway

Although it has hardly disappeared, gender inequality in the labor market has declined noticeably in recent decades, by most standard indicators. Inequality is declining in labor-force participation rates, wages, and occupational sex segregation, even though considerable sex segregation remains, especially at the job and firm level (Jacobs 1999; Petersen and Morgan 1995; Reskin and Padavic 1999). A debate now centers on the nature of the forces behind these changes and their implications for the future. Are the forces that have been and are undermining gender inequality now unstoppable, as recent arguments posit (Jackson 1998)? Is the significance of gender as an organizing principle of inequality in society declining as a consequence? If there are forces that continue to reproduce gender inequality, what do they consist of and what is their future?.

Effects of a Girls-Only Curriculum During Adolescence: Performance, Persistence, and Engagement in Mathematics and Science

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2003

This article investigates the benefits of girls-only classroom instruction in math and science during Grades 9 and 10, in the context of a public coeducational high school. It is based on a longitudinal investigation with 786 participants: 85 girls in all-girl classes, and 319 girls and 382 boys in a regular coeducational program. Preexisting achievement, background, and psychological characteristics were included as covariates to ensure comparability of the groups. Significant post-intervention program effects were found for math and science achievement and course enrollment. In contrast, there were no significant program effects for perceived math competence or math anxiety. Although those psychological characteristics predicted performance, they were independent of program effects (i.e., they did not mediate the program effects).

A Culture of (in)Equality?: A Cross-National Study of Gender Parity and Gender Segregation in National School Systems

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2008
Res Comp Int Educ

Alexander W. Wiseman

Recent international education reports have highlighted some of the progress (as well as remaining disparity) in gendered education enrollment rates. But, the problem of gender segregation is still a very real issue even in some nations where girls are enrolled at levels on par with boys. Separate classes, curricula, and in many countries separate schools for boys and girls persist. This is juxtaposed against the opposite extreme that exists in some other countries' educational systems where girls are sometimes pushed into classes and advanced curricula for which they have not been adequately prepared. Using data from the most recent Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), this article reports on gender parity across approximately 45 nations in access (measured by enrollment rates), performance (mathematics achievement scores), and opportunity (implemented curriculum, teacher characteristics, classroom interaction) among 13-year-old girls and boys. The results of this study suggest that while cross-national gender parity numerically exists in many of these 45 nations in access, performance, and opportunity, the implications for gender equality are less clear. Several theoretical propositions are posited to explain these cross-national trends in gender parity versus equality.

Why Are Some Academic Fields Tipping Toward Female? The Sex Composition of U.S. Fields of Doctoral Degree Receipt, 1971-2002

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2007

Using data on the number of men and women who received doctorates in all academic fields from 1971 to 2002, the authors examine changes in the sex composition of fields. During this period, the proportion of women who received doctorates increased dramatically from 14 percent to 46 percent. Regression models with fixed effects indicate no evidence that fields with declining relative salaries deter the entry of men, as would be predicted by the queuing theory of Reskin and Roos. Consistent with the devaluation perspective and Schelling’s tipping model, above a certain percentage of women, men are deterred from entering fields by the fields’ further feminization. However, the rank order of fields in the percentage of women changed only slightly over time, implying that, to a large extent, men and women continued to choose fields as before, even when many more women received doctorates. The findings on the effects of feminization on salaries are mixed.

A Matter of Degrees: Female Underrepresentation in Computer Science Programs Cross-Nationally

Chapter

Feb 2006

Occupational Ghettos: The Worldwide Segregation of Women and Men

Book

Aug 2004

5. The Men Move In: Home Economics, 1950-1970

Chapter

Dec 2019

Margaret W. Rossiter

‘Nuts and Bolts and People’ Gender Troubled Engineering Identities

Chapter

Jan 2015

Wendy Faulkner

How and where boundaries are drawn between ‘the technical’ and ‘the social’ in engineering identities and practices is a central concern for feminist technology studies, given the strong marking of sociality as feminine and technology as masculine. I explore these themes, drawing on ethnographic observations of building design engineering. This is a profoundly heterogeneous and networked engineering practice, which entails troubled boundaries and identities for the individuals involved – evident in interactions between engineers and architects, and amongst engineers, around management and design. There are complex gender tensions, as well as professional tensions, at work here. I conclude that engineers cleave to technicist engineering identities in part because they converge with (and perform) available masculinities, and that women’s (perceived and felt) membership as ‘real’ engineers is likely to be more fragile than men’s. Improving the representation of women in engineering requires foregrounding and celebrating heterogeneity in genders as well as engineering.

Public-private tendencies within higher education in Norway from a women’s perspective

Chapter

Jan 1991

In a book called ‘Scenarier 2000’ (Hompland (ed.), 1987), which has caused considerable debate in Norway, a group of young social scientists predicts that in the course of the next decade women in Norway will begin to dominate those types of higher education that provide access to the leading positions in various parts of the country’s public sector. This trend implies that after the year 2000 women will be running the Norwegian welfare state. Men will make different educational choices than women, and their aim will be to hold leading positions in the private sector. Often they will choose education organized outside the public institutions of higher learning — in the so-called ‘grey’ or ‘hidden’ university. Some of the education in the ‘grey’ or ‘hidden’ university is controlled by private industrial or business enterprises and comprise what is often called the ‘corporate classroom.’ We see this trend toward differential education and employment by gender as a part of a larger process in which the public sector loses prestige and power as it gets ‘invaded’ by women. We are, then, addressing a new issue in political debate on education: the tendency to privatization within the educational system in Norway.

WOMEN IN SCIENCE 94 - SURPRISES ACROSS THE CULTURAL DIVIDE

Article

Mar 1994

Marcia Barinaga

World polity and gender parity: Women's share of higher education, 1965-1985

Article

Jan 1996

The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less

Article

Jan 2005

Barry Schwartz

Gender, power dynamics, and social interaction

Article

Jan 1999

A Woman's Place Is with Other Women: Sex Segregation within Organizations

Article

The "actors" of modern society: The cultural construction of social agency

Article

Mar 2000

Much social theory takes for granted the core conceit of modern culture, that modern actors - individuals, organizations, nation states - are autochthonous and natural entities, no longer really embedded in culture. Accordingly, while there is much abstract metatheory about "actors" and their "agency," there is arguably little theory about the topic. This article offers direct arguments about how the modern (European, now global) cultural system constructs the modern actor as an authorized agent for various interests via an ongoing relocation into society of agency originally located in transcendental authority or in natural forces environing the social system. We see this authorized agentic capability as an essential feature of what modern theory and culture call an "actor," and one that, when analyzed, helps greatly in explaining a number of otherwise anomalous or little analyzed features of modern individuals, organizations, and states. These features include their isomorphism and standardization, their internal decoupling, their extraordinarily complex structuration, and their capacity for prolific collective action.

Sustained Effects of the Single-Sex Secondary School Experience on Attitudes, Behaviors, and Values in College

Article

Sep 1990

Extending an earlier study (Lee & Bryk, 1986), this research investigates sustained effects of single-sex and coeducational secondary school on the attitudes, values, and behaviors of young men and women, measured 2 or 4 years after high school graduation. The sample from High School and Beyond consists of 1,533 college students who had attended 75 Catholic high schools, 45 of which were single-sex. Longitudinal data were available biennially from their high school sophomore year (1980) until their college senior year (1986). Although sustained effects of single-sex secondary schooling appear for both sexes on college choice and postcollege interests, effects on young women extend to attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. The single-sex educational experience, especially during the formative adolescent period, appears to enable young women to overcome certain social-psychological barriers to their academic and professional advancement.

Gender and Job Values

Article

Jan 1996

Research on the gender gap in earnings has been influenced heavily by human capital theory and theories of labor market segmentation. Both theories consider the role of gender differences in values on the ''supply side'' only with respect to the allocation of time between the labor market and the home and its possible effect on career decision making. Gender differences in values, however may affect the choice of occupations and jobs, as well as the way in which jobs are performed. This article reports on a study of gender differences in the job values of U.S. high school seniors from 1976 to 1991. Unlike earlier studies of job values, the authors found no gender differences in the importance of extrinsic rewards and influence, but persisting gender differences in the importance of intrinsic, altruistic, and social rewards. Young women attach greater importance to these latter rewards than do young men and less importance to the leisure-related aspects of jobs.

Automatic Stereotyping

Article

May 1996

Two experiments tested a form of automatic stereo-typing Subjects saw primes related to gender (e g, mother, father, nurse, doctor) or neutral with respect to gender (e g, parent, student, person) followed by target pronouns (stimulus onset asynchronv = 300 ms) that were gender related (e g, she, he) or neutral (it, me) or followed by nonpronouns (do, all, Experiment 2 only) In Experiment 1, subjects judged whether each pronoun was male or female Automatic gender beliefs (stereotypes) were observed in faster responses to pronouns consistent than inconsistent with the gender component of the prime regardless of subjects' awareness of the prime-target relation, and independently of subjects explicit beliefs about gender stereotypes and language reform In Experiment 2, automatic stereotyping was obtained even though a gender-irrelevant judgment task (pronoun/not pronoun) was used Together, these experiments demonstrate that gender information imparted by words can automatically influence judgment, although the strength of such effects may be moderated by judgment task and prime type

Interpersonal Influences and Educational Aspirations in 12 Countries: The Importance of Institutional Context

Article

Apr 2002

Research in the United States has found that peers and parents play an important role in shaping students' educational aspirations. Little research has examined the extent to which these findings apply in other countries or whether the role of significant others varies according to the organization of national educational systems. This article examines the effects of peers' and parents' attitudes regarding academic performance on students' educational aspirations in 12 countries. The results indicate that peers and parents influence educational aspirations in countries with relatively undifferentiated secondary schooling, like the United States, while the influence of significant others is negligible in societies with more differentiated secondary education. In these latter systems, it appears that aspirations are largely determined by the type of school the student attends; there is little room for interpersonal affects. The effects of significant others on students' aspirations depend, in large part, on the structural features of the educational systems in which they operate.

Cross-Cultural Comparison of Gender Differences in Adolescents’ Attitudes Toward Computers and Selected School Subjects

Article

Jan 2015

The attitudes of two samples of adolescents (total N = 2,105) from Victoria, British Columbia, and Shanghai, People’s Republic of China, toward computer studies and selected school subjects were surveyed and compared. The Chinese students were significantly more positive in their attitudes toward computers, science, and writing than were the British Columbia students. In addition, the students from Shanghai displayed fewer sex or age differences among themselves, except when asked to give opinions about the competence of females with regard to computer use and science. Both samples of females agreed that women have as much ability as men in these areas, whereas males in both countries were significantly more skeptical. The study also supports the validity and reliability of attitude research in a cross-cultural context.

Modernization and Postmodernization: Cultural, Economic, and Political Change in Forty-three Societies

Article

Mar 1998

Cross-National Variation in Occupational Sex Segregation

Article

Aug 1992

Maria Charles

Examines the relationship between the occupational distributions of men and women in 25 industrial countries and selected social, economic, and cultural factors. The same economic structures that are associated with women's greater integration into the formal labor force also contributes to a deepening institutionalization of gender within the occupational structure. This may occur through the incorporation of women's traditional tasks into the formal economy, and/or through the hierarchical and functional differentiation of economic activity in highly industrial societies. Results indicate that some primary structural characteristics of modern economies (a relatively large service sector and a large employee class) are associated with greater female concentration in clerical, sales, and service occupations. Other social and cultural characteristics of these countries - low rates of fertility and more favorable ideological environments - partially offset these segregative forces. The actual penetration of egalitarian principles into the labor market appears to be mediated by the structure of interest articulation, with corporatist systems showing greater propensity toward segregations. -from Author

The Incorporation of Women into Higher Education: Paradoxical Outcomes?

Article

Jan 2000

Karen Bradley

Unlike the extensive cross-national research on occupational sex segregation, sex segregation within higher education has yet to be empirically examined comparatively. This article reports analyses for a wide range of countries from 1965 through 1990, using two measures of gender differentiation by field of study. The results indicate that gender differentiation has declined surprisingly little. Women are more likely to graduate from education, arts, humanities, social sciences, and law, and men are more likely to graduate from natural sciences, mathematics, and engineering. Few differences are found between more- and less economically developed countries. These findings echo those in the occupational sex segregation literature.

The Path to Math: Gender and Racial-Ethnic Differences in Mathematics Participation from Middle School to High School

Article

Jul 1994

Sophia Catsambis

This study traced the development of gender differences in learning opportunities, achievement, and choice in mathematics among White, African American, and Latino students using data from a nationally representative sample of eighth-grade students who were resurveyed in the 10th grade. It found that in this age group, female students do not lag behind male students in test scores and grades and that White female students are exposed to more learning opportunities in mathematics than are male students. However, all female students tend to have less interest in mathematics and less confidence in their mathematics abilities. Gender differences are the largest among Latinos and the smallest among African Americans. Furthermore, the major barriers to mathematics achievement for White female students are attitudes and career choices and for minority students of both sexes, they are limited learning opportunities and low levels of achievement.

Modernization and Postmodernization: Cultural, Economic, and Political Change in 43 Societies

Book

Jan 1997
FOREIGN AFF

Inglehart Ronald

Creating Gender Equality: Cross-National Gender Stratification and Mathematical Performance

Article

Apr 1993

This study uses data on sex differences in the eighth-grade mathematical performance of over 77,000 students in 19 countries, 1964 and 1982 data on such differences in 9 countries, and data on gender stratification of advanced educational and occupational opportunities to explore when and where gender will affect students' performance in mathematics. The analyses show that there is cross-national variation in the performance of mathematics and that it is related to variation in the gender stratification of educational and occupational opportunities in adulthood, that sex differences have declined over time, and that school and family factors leading to higher mathematical performance are less stratified by gender when women have more equal access to jobs and higher education.

The Meek Shall Not Inherit the Earth: Self-Evaluation and the Legitimacy of Stratification

Article

Dec 1980

L. Richard Della Fave

Stratified social orders are maintained through a wide variety of mechanisms, one being broad-based legitimation of the notion of unequal distribution of primary resources. My attempt to develop a set of propositions provides at least a partial explanation of how such legitimation is generated and maintained. I argue that both conflict and functional theory point, at least implicitly, to the importance of the effect of unequal distribution of resources on the development of the self--constructing my argument through application of Mead's theory of the self to the case of stratification. This application is shown, in turn, to be compatible with several lines of theorizing in social psychology, including equity and status attribution theory. Once basic propositions are developed, I discuss ways in which major social institutions maintain legitimacy through their effect on the self and explore some possible sources of delegitimation.

The World Educational Revolution, 1950-1970

Article

Oct 1977

This paper's focus is on the extremely rapid expansion of educational enrollments that occurred throughout the world between 1950 and 1970. The universal expansion of education during this period led us to construct diffusion models and to explain this process as a consequence of the population characteristics of educational systems. Estimates of these models show that such a self-generating process explains much of the variation in educational expansion. We then test the effect of economic, political, and social characteristics of countries on educational expansion. The results show that cross-national differences in levels of economic, political, and social development do not explain much of this massive post-war expansion of educational systems. Rather, between 1950 and 1970, education has expanded everywhere as a function of the available population to be educated and of the level of education existing in 1950. We conclude by speculating that the causes of this expansion lie in characteristics of the contemporary world system, since such characteristics would affect all nations simultaneously.

Slowly but Surely? The Global Expansion of Women's Participation in Science and Engineering Fields of Study, 1972-92

Article

Jul 2001

This cross-national study shows that women's enrollments in science and engineering fields in higher education increased between 1972 and 1992 throughout much of the world. This increase was positively influenced by women's level of enrollments in the nonscience and nonengineering fields. This finding suggests a positive spillover effect for women. The level of male enrollments in these fields also had a positive effect, thus suggesting that as fields of study become more open to men, they also become more open to women. These cross-national findings raise questions about the applicability of the persistence of an inequality perspective to women's expanded access to higher education.

Course Enrollment in the High School: The Perspective of Working-Class Females

Article

Jan 1985

Jane Gaskell

This article argues for a new approach to the study of tracking in the high school, an approach that emphasizes the active and knowledgeable role students play. In addition to the more frequently studied issue of class segregation in school tracking, the article examines the often overlooked phenomenon of gender segregation. Interviews with girls who selected business courses are used to illustrate how students' knowledge of the school and of the society produces course choices that in turn tend to reproduce class and gender categories.

Investment in Human Capital

Article

Feb 1973

Gender at Work: The Dynamics of Job Segregation by Sex during World War II

Article

Apr 1988

From ?Engineeresses? to ?Girl Engineers? to ?Good Engineers?: A History of Women's U.S. Engineering Education

Article

Apr 2004

Amy Sue Bix

Trends in Educational Equity of Girls and Women

Article

Jan 2000

Destined for Equality: The Inevitable Rise of Women's Status

Article

Dec 1999

Math = Male, Me = Female, Therefore Math unequal Me

Article

Jul 2002
J PERS SOC PSYCHOL

Brian A. Nosek

College students, especially women, demonstrated negativity toward math and science relative to arts and language on implicit measures. Group membership (being female), group identity (self = female), and gender stereotypes (math = male) were related to attitudes and identification with mathematics. Stronger implicit math = male stereotypes corresponded with more negative implicit and explicit math attitudes for women but more positive attitudes for men. Associating the self with female and math with male made it difficult for women, even women who had selected math-intensive majors, to associate math with the self. These results point to the opportunities and constraints on personal preferences that derive from membership in social groups.

Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering: 2011 (NSF 11-309)

Article

Jan 2004

National Science Foundation

Rising Tide: Gender Equality and Cultural Change Around the World

Book

Apr 2003

The twentieth century gave rise to profound changes in traditional sex roles. This study reveals how modernization has changed cultural attitudes towards gender equality and analyzes the political consequences. It systematically compares attitudes towards gender equality worldwide, comparing almost 70 nations, ranging from rich to poor, agrarian to postindustrial. This volume is essential reading to gain a better understanding of issues in comparative politics, public opinion, political behavior, development and sociology. © Ronald Inglehart and Pippa Norris 2003 and Cambridge University Press, 2009.

The Changing Logic of Political Citizenship: Cross-National Acquisition of Women's Suffrage Rights, 1890 to 1990

Article

Oct 1997

We analyze the acquisition of women's suffrage in 133 countries from 1890 to 1990. Throughout the twentieth century the influence of national political and organizational factors has declined and the importance of international links and influences has become increasingly important. These findings indicate that the franchise has become institutionalized worldwide as a taken-for-granted feature of national citizenship and an integral component of nation-state identity: The prevailing model of political citizenship has become more inclusive.

A Methodical Analysis of Segregation Indexes

Article

Apr 1955

Individualization: Institutionalized Individualism and its Social and Political Consequences. Sage, London

Book

Jan 2002

The Growing Female Advantage in College Completion: The Role of Family Background and Academic Achievement

Article

Aug 2006

In a few short decades, the gender gap in college completion has reversed from favoring men to favoring women. This study, which is the first to assess broadly the causes of the growing female advantage in college completion, considers the impact of family resources as well as gender differences in academic performance and in the pathways to college completion on the rising gender gap. Analyses of General Social Survey data indicate that the female-favorable trend in college completion emerged unevenly by family status of origin to the disadvantage of sons in families with a low-educated or absent father. Additional analyses of National Educational Longitudinal Survey (NELS) data indicate that women 's superior academic performance plays a large role in producing the gender gap in college completion, but that this effect remains latent until after the transition to college. For NELS cohorts, who were born in the mid-1970s, the female advantage in college completion remains largest in families with a low-educated or absent father, but currently extends to all family types. In conjunction with women's growing incentives to attain higher education, gender differences in resources related to family background and academic performance largely explain the growing female advantage in college completion.

Gender and the Career Choice Process: The Role of Biased Self‐Assessments

Article

May 2001

Shelley J. Correll

This article develops a supply-side mechanism about how cultural beliefs about gender differentially influence the early career-relevant decisions of men and women. Cultural beliefs about gender are argued to bias individuals' perceptions of their competence at var- ious career-relevant tasks, controlling for actual ability. To the extent that individuals then act on gender-differentiated perceptions when making career decisions, cultural beliefs about gender channel men and women in substantially different career directions. The hy- potheses are evaluated by considering how gendered beliefs about mathematics impact individuals' assessments of their own mathe- matical competence, which, in turn, leads to gender differences in decisions to persist on a path toward a career in science, math, or engineering.

More Than Ability: Gender and Personal Relationships Influence Science and Technology Involvement

Article

Oct 2002

James Daniel Lee

Women in the United States are underrepresented in science, mathematics, and engineering (SME) educational programs and careers. One cause is the dramatic and disproportionate loss of women who intended in high school to pursue science-related careers. This article uses the longitudinal survey responses of 320 male and female SME summer program students to assess the ways in which their social relationships and experiences affect their involvement in science and technology. The issues are framed in terms of identity theory. Structural equation models support the identity framework; emotionally satisfying relationships cent tered on SME activities and discussions positively shape students' likelihood of thinking of themselves in SME terms and of engaging in SME activities. Girls are more responsive to the programs' educational interventions, whereas boys are driven more by an "internal compass" that reflects past SME identities and behaviors. These findings add to our understanding about why typical SME educational settings may be especially hostile to female students and suggest ways of increasing the retention of talented SME students. They also suggest the need to reexamine the identity theory model.

Constraints Into Preferences: Gender, Status, and Emerging Career Aspirations

Article

Feb 2004

Shelley J. Correll

to ability, which differentially biases the way men and women assess their own competence at tasks that are career relevant, controlling for actual ability. The model implies that, ifmen and women make dzfferent assessments of their own competence at career-relevant tasks, they will also form dzfferent aspirations for career paths and activities believed to require competence at these tasks. Data from the experiment support this model. In one condition, male and female undergraduate participants completed an experimental task after being exposed to a belief that men are better at this task. In this condition, male participants assessed their task ability higher than female participants did even though all were given the same scores. Males in this condition also had higher aspirations for career-relevant activities described as requiring competence at the task. No gender differences were found in either assessments or aspirations in a second condition where participants were instead exposed to a belief that men and women have equal task ability. To illustrate the utility of the model in a "real world" (i.e., nonlaboratoryl setting, results are compared to a previous survey study that showed men make higher assessments of their own mathematical ability than women, which contributes to their higher rates ofpersistence on paths to careers in science, math, and engineering.

The Effect of Single-Sex Secondary Schooling on Women's Choice of College Major

Article

Jun 2003

Jennifer S. Thompson

This study examines the effect of attending an all-girls' high school on the sex-traditionality of women's choice of college major. Using data from the High School and 'Beyond study and multinomial logit analysis, the results indicate that women who attended all-girls' high schools (versus coed high schools) were more likely to major in sex-integrated fields, compared to highly female fields. The effect may be due in small part to feminist attitudes produced in an all-female high school environment but is not due to differences in coursework (particularly math) or test scores.

Horizontal Stratification of Higher Education in Russia: Trends, Gender Differences, and Labor Market Outcomes

Article

Jan 2004

Using survey data collected in fall 2000, the authors analyzed four aspects of “horizontal” variation among Russian university students: field of specialization, cost (paid versus free), intensity (full- versus part-time study), and timing of study (Soviet versus post-Soviet era). For each type of variation, they examined trends over time, gender differences, and effects on earnings and employment opportunities. In Russia, as elsewhere, horizontal differentiation of higher education has stratifying consequences. Unlike in many countries, gender differences along horizontal dimensions have not narrowed in Russia; in fact, the gender gap in part-time study has widened. But the introduction of market forces in higher education and the economy has shaped both male and female distributions across specialty, cost, and intensity. The labor market advantages accruing to a university degree differ across these horizontal dimensions and by the timing of the degree. Some of the patterns observed in Russia resemble those in the United States, while others are distinctive.

Double Disadvantage or Blessing in Disguise? Understanding the Relationship Between College Major and Employment Sector

Article

Jul 2005

Josipa Roksa

Although college graduates earn substantial labor market rewards, not all college degrees are rewarded equally. Graduates who majored in female-dominated fields earn substantially lower incomes than do graduates who majored in male-dominated fields. Income differentials that are associated with different types of college majors are extensively noted but poorly understood. This article advances the previous literature by examining how college major affects the labor market outcomes of college graduates through its relationship with employment sector. The results show that graduates of female-dominated fields are disproportionately employed in public and nonprofit organizations, which offer lower monetary rewards but facilitate access to professional and managerial positions. Notably, college major and employment sector interact in ways that reduce income penalties and enhance the occupational location of graduates of female-dominated fields who work in public and nonprofit settings. These findings highlight the importance of considering organizational context in the study of labor market outcomes, particularly when examining the gendered character of educational credentials and occupations.

Indulging Our Gendered Selves? Sex Segregation by Field of Study in 44 Countries1

Abstract

No full-text available

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