Female and male adolescents' subjective orientations to mathematics and the influence of those orientations on postsecondary majors.

Abstract

Although important strides toward gender parity have been made in several scientific fields, women remain underrepresented in the physical sciences, engineering, mathematics, and computer sciences (PEMCs). This study examines the effects of adolescents' subjective orientations, course taking, and academic performance on the likelihood of majoring in PEMC in college. Results indicate that racial-ethnic and gender underrepresentation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields are interrelated and should be examined with attention to the intersecting factors influencing female and racial-ethnic minority adolescents' pathways toward careers in these fields. Among those who major in PEMC fields, women closely resemble men with respect to their subjective orientations. The effects of subjective orientations on women's chances of majoring in PEMC vary by their secondary school mathematics course completion levels. Women who take more mathematics courses are more likely to major in PEMC; however, course taking alone does not attenuate gender disparities in declaring these majors. High mathematics ability (as measured by standardized test scores in the 10th grade) appears to be positively associated with women's selection of social, behavioral, clinical, and health science majors. This association is less robust (and slightly negative) for women in PEMC. While advanced course taking appears to assist women in selecting PEMC majors, women who enter these fields may not be as strong as those who select other, less male-dominated scientific fields.

Feeding the pipeline: Gender, occupational plans, and college major selection

“…Work-life attitudes , in particular, show but a very weak relationship to the gender gap in major choice. These results are consistent with the recent work of Mann and DiPrete (2012), Riegle-Crum b et al (2012) and Perez-Felkner et al (2012) who have analyzed the same data but with different measure ment and modeling strategies. They nonetheless are inconsistent with gender essentialist accounts that point to women's decisions to choose motherhood over science (Williams and Ceci, 2012 ; see also Hakim, 2002;Ceci et al, 2009 ) or with expectancy-value models that emphasize the importance of gender role ideologies in the developmen t of subjective valuations of science relative to family (e.g., Eccles, 2011a,b ).…”

Peer Victimization and Adolescent Adjustment: Does School Belonging Matter?

“…The broad concept of school belonging has demonstrated important associations with outcomes of interest to the present study (Libbey, 2004; McNeely & Falci, 2004; Stearns & Glennie, 2010). As far back as Dewey (1958), school belonging has been posited as a critical determinant of students’ academic success and engagement (Fredricks et al, 2004; Osterman, 2000; Roeser et al, 1996).…”

Study choice and career development in STEM fields: an overview and integration of the research

“…Occupational images of the STEM field are static (e.g., Lang 2012), especially for girls (e.g., Archer et al 2012b;Perez-Felkner et al 2012), or for children from certain ethnic or socioeconomic backgrounds (Hughes 2011). The image of workers in this field is also stereotypically negative: workers in this field are considered dull and unsociable.…”