TY - JOUR
T1 - The puzzle of missing female engineers
T2 - Academic preparation, ability beliefs, and preferences
AU - Shi, Ying
N1 - Funding Information:
The author is grateful to Peter Arcidiacono, Charles Clotfelter, V. Joseph Hotz, Helen Ladd, Seth Sanders, Jacob Vigdor, and seminar participants at the AEFP annual conference for their helpful comments. This work has been supported by the American Education Research Association (AERA) Minority Dissertation Fellowship and a Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy grant.
Funding Information:
The author is grateful to Peter Arcidiacono, Charles Clotfelter, V. Joseph Hotz, Helen Ladd, Seth Sanders, Jacob Vigdor, and seminar participants at the AEFP annual conference for their helpful comments. This work has been supported by the American Education Research Association (AERA) Minority Dissertation Fellowship and a Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy grant.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018
PY - 2018/6
Y1 - 2018/6
N2 - This paper uses administrative North Carolina data linked from high school to college and national surveys to characterize the largest contributor to the STEM gender gap: engineering. Disparities are the result of differential entry during high school or earlier rather than postsecondary exit. Differences in pre-college academic preparation account for 5 to 7% of the gap. Females’ relative lack of academic self-confidence explains 8%, while other-regarding preferences and professional goals capture a further 14%. Empirical evidence using identifying variation in the gender composition of twins in North Carolina shows that opposite-sex pairs are more likely to pursue gender-stereotypical majors.
AB - This paper uses administrative North Carolina data linked from high school to college and national surveys to characterize the largest contributor to the STEM gender gap: engineering. Disparities are the result of differential entry during high school or earlier rather than postsecondary exit. Differences in pre-college academic preparation account for 5 to 7% of the gap. Females’ relative lack of academic self-confidence explains 8%, while other-regarding preferences and professional goals capture a further 14%. Empirical evidence using identifying variation in the gender composition of twins in North Carolina shows that opposite-sex pairs are more likely to pursue gender-stereotypical majors.
KW - Economics of gender
KW - Human capital
KW - Occupational choice
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85046828202&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1016/j.econedurev.2018.04.005
DO - 10.1016/j.econedurev.2018.04.005
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85046828202
VL - 64
SP - 129
EP - 143
JO - Economics of Education Review
JF - Economics of Education Review
SN - 0272-7757
ER -