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Gender Discrepancy In STEM

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The U.S. Department of Education recently reported that even though more female high school graduates took advanced STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) courses than male counterparts, their interests in STEM were significantly lower regardless of race/ethnicity according to a 2009 survey (U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2015). Further, there are significantly less women who completed STEM degrees compared to men (Lee, Alston, & Kahn, 2015). In addition to the gender discrepancy, racial discrepancy also exists in STEM. Both discrepancies have been examined by researchers for the last decades; however, relatively less studies have examined the racial discrepancy in STEM. In contrast, many studies have examined how to promote gender parity in STEM fields.
Studies have found that gender stereotypes contribute heavily to the gender discrepancy in STEM (e.g., O’Brien et al., 2015). STEM fields are highly associated stereotypes with masculine traits (e.g., independent, assertive, highly technical). These stereotypes can lead to gender discrepancy in STEM in multiple ways. For instance, due to evaluations of students affected by gender-STEM stereotypes, faculty tend to offer more opportunities to men compared to women, such as job opportunities, …show more content…

Also, STEM career interest in computer science and adaptive learning skills were very strongly positively correlated, r (20) = .84, p = .000. There is also a very strong positive correlation between the career interest in science and the career interest in computer science, r (5) = .91, p = .035. However, the sample size is very small, therefore these findings should be interpreted with caution. The post-test was conducted on April 16th, and the results are expected to be ready by

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