Gender differences in the labour market entry of STEM graduates

Acceptance of Digital Technology Among Male and Female University Students: With a Focus on STEM Students

“…Despite what we hope will continue to be a general increase in the similarity of both genders' profiles on ICT biographical, attitudinal, and performance indicators, we conclude that the focus of research for the group of female STEM students should additionally be on interventions that are likely to maintain female students' interest in STEM and allow them to develop a sustained, professional interest in their field of study. This is because the regression results found for female STEM subjects may be the vanguard of a trend that confirms the old finding that successfully reducing early causes of a problem (manifested here in the nearly identical profiles of female and male STEM students in ICT biographies and other indicators) does not automatically reduce later problems (e.g., low numbers of female students and graduates in STEM subjects, increased dropout intentions, lower entry into the workforce after graduation; see Lehman et al, 2023;Sax et al, 2017;Schwerter & Ilg, 2023). Promising interventions could be, for example, the creation of (scientifically and professionally progressive) new interdisciplinary degree programs.…”

“…With regard to STEM studies, it is well documented, that female university students still experience little encouragement from their families to consider STEM subjects for study and work (e.g., Lloyd et al, 2018). In STEM subjects, particularly engineering and computer science, it is noticeable that female graduates enter the labor market significantly less often than male graduates, indicating a mismatch between education and occupation (Schwerter & Ilg, 2023;Lehman et al,2017;Lehman et al, 2023). As university students make more same-gender friends, this means that where female students in STEM subjects are in the minority from the start, they are also more socially isolated in their field of study.…”

Women in STEM graduate education: Case of the German excellence initiative

“…When non‐academic STEM careers are concerned, there are similar findings in the literature. Schwerter and Ilg (2023) show that a larger share of women than men transition to occupations outside STEM after they graduate from STEM departments in Germany. This observation is not uniform across all STEM fields.…”

“…Transition into non‐STEM occupations is larger for graduates of engineering and computer science compared to graduates of mathematics and natural sciences. Schwerter and Ilg (2023) show that having children or variation in the availability of post‐graduate internships at the time of graduation do not explain why women are more likely to have degree‐unrelated careers than men. They explain the underlying reason as follows: ‘A possible explanation for the results could be that lower self‐efficacy, belief in one's abilities, or lack of role models in engineering and computer science occupations remain prevalent among female graduates’ (p. 320).…”

“…Combining the necessity of female role models and behavioural responses that are formed during early stages of one's education, as discussed in detail by Ceci and Williams (2011), any public policy that aims for gender balance among STEM doctorate students, or STEM faculty members, or, more in general, in STEM careers must come with a very well-organized micro-level plan on how to provide support networks and bring students in touch with role models. Based on the findings of Ceci and Williams (2011), Christie et al (2017), and Schwerter and Ilg (2023), role models may even be pivotal during early stages of girls' education, which is high school or even earlier, to channel them towards STEM education and eventually STEM careers.…”