Intellectual Merit: This project investigates the attitudinal and cultural factors that support gender segregation of scientific, technical, engineering, and mathematical (STEM) fields. Survey data from 59 countries at four time points will be used to address the following questions: How have eighth grade boys' and girls' attitudes toward mathematics changed between 1995 and 2007? How do these attitudes vary across countries? And how is the gender composition of engineering degree programs affected by adolescents? attitudes toward mathematics? Gender equality is sometimes found in unexpected places. This is nowhere more evident than in the gender composition of STEM, specifically women's strong representation in these fields in many reputably gender-traditional developing and transitional societies. The higher levels of gender segregation in advanced industrial labor markets and educational systems is partly attributable to structural features, including their large service sectors and highly diversified curricula. But evidence is growing that modern forms of gender segregation also reflect conscious choices by girls and women to avoid mathematically-intensive physical science and engineering fields in favor of pursuits that are regarded as more human centered. Using descriptive trend analyses and multivariate, multilevel modeling, this research will investigate (1) international trends in adolescents' attitudes toward mathematics, (2) the conditions under which girls and boys develop more positive attitudes toward mathematics, and (3) the process by which gender-differentiated attitudes are translated into sex-segregation of engineering degree programs. Three attitudinal dimensions will be considered: affinity toward mathematics, valuation of mathematical skills, and self-confidence in mathematics. Attitudinal data are taken from four waves of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Survey (TIMSS). Central research hypotheses are that girls' attitudes toward mathematics will be less positive and more gender-differentiated in advanced industrial countries, and that attitudes toward mathematics will better predict women's share of engineering degrees in advanced industrial than in transitional or developing countries. These hypotheses derive from theoretical arguments about the declining salience of existential security and the rise of cultural mandates for self-expression in affluent societies.
Broader Impacts: Persistent shortage of STEM workers is a growing problem that threatens to undermine national development and economic competitiveness around the globe. Tapping the vast pool of potential female scientists and engineers has become a top priority of employers and a key policy goal of diverse national governments and international organizations. But most efforts to recruit women to these activities in industrial societies have been unsuccessful because little has been done to undermine stereotypes that lead girls to see themselves as unsuited for such work. Besides benefits to society as a whole, this research aims to serve women by identifying cultural and attitudinal obstacles to their participation in fields characterized by better payoff to educational investment and greater opportunities for advancement than typical female-dominated fields. The strong male-labeling of mathematically-intensive work limits perceived options of future generations of girls and deprives all citizens of women's potential human capital contributions. By comparing attitudes and outcomes across a broad range of contexts, this research can help identify the appropriate locus for policy efforts aimed at integrating STEM fields.
Past research shows surprising patterns of cross-national variability in the gender composition of STEM fields, with women less well represented in affluent, reputably gender-progressive countries than in poorer more gender-traditional ones. For example, women make up a much larger share of engineers in Columbia and Bulgaria than in the United States or Sweden, and women’s share of science graduates is nearly 50 percentage points lower in the Netherlands than in many Muslim countries. This project explores the role of attitudes and aspirations in generating these counterintuitive patterns. My collaborators and I use survey data on eighth-graders in 53 countries at five time points between 1995 and 2011 to assess whether the gender-gap in attitudes follows patterns that are similar to those for distributions across occupations and fields of study. Specifically, we address the following questions: How does the gender-gap in adolescents’ affinity for mathematics and aspirations for mathematically-related jobs vary cross-nationally? How have attitudes toward mathematics changed since 1995? And have attitudes in less economically developed societies begun to converge on those found in the advanced industrial world? A central explanatory variable in this project is societal-level affluence. In previous work, I have suggested that broad-based material security may support more gender-typed aspirations and career choices (Charles and Bradley 2009). Results from the current project show that the gender gap in eighth-graders’ attitudes toward mathematics and mathematically-related jobs is indeed larger in affluent, "postmaterialist" societies. Moreover, both girls and boys view mathematics more negatively in these contexts. We also find evidence of convergence between more and less affluent societies in the gender-typing of STEM work: Between 2003 and 2011, the gender gap in aspirations for mathematically-related jobs grew in less economically developed countries, while it showed little change in advanced industrial societies. In interpreting these findings, I suggest that the individualistic, self-expressive value systems that prevail in affluent democracies may discourage pursuits thought to be economically practical but personally non-expressive. In highly affluent societies, young people are encouraged to follow their passions and choose educational and occupational paths that allow them to "realize their true selves." American girls who seek to self-express may be particularly wary of STEM fields, because taken-for-granted cultural beliefs about core female personality traits (and girls’ gendered understandings of their own authentic inner selves) are at odds with dominant Western representations of mathematical and technical work. The research reported here suggests a need for greater attention to cultural stereotypes and gender-specific aspirations and affinities as causal forces in the sex segregation of STEM fields. Gender-differentiated aspirations emerge early in the life course, and previous research shows that they have real consequences for career outcomes. While the positive "affluence effect" on the attitudinal gender gap is worrisome for those concerned about diversifying STEM fields, the significant contextual variability revealed through this research suggests opportunities for change in advanced industrial societies. This change depends in part on increasing girls’ and women’s interest in STEM and STEM careers, which in turn depends on the erosion of two kinds of cultural stereotype: those that depict women as innately ill-suited for STEM work, and those that depict scientific and technical work as uncreative, solitary and fundamentally masculine. Ironically, the freedom of choice and individualism that are so celebrated in affluent democracies may help construct and give agency to stereotypically gendered aspirations and affinities. Self-segregation of STEM careers may occur because men and women believe that they are naturally good at gender-conforming activities (attempting to build on their strengths), because they believe that certain fields will be seen as appropriate for people like them ("doing" gender), or because they believe they will enjoy gender-conforming fields more than gender-nonconforming ones (doing what they love, realizing their true selves). By encouraging individual self-expression in postmaterialist societies, we may also effectively promote the development and expression of culturally gendered selves. Future comparative research should explore in greater detail the social psychological and cultural mechanisms producing gender-differentiated aspirations in advanced industrial societies. For further reading, see: Charles, Maria. 2011. "What Gender is Science?" Contexts 22-28 (Spring). Charles, Maria and Karen Bradley. 2009. "Indulging Our Gendered Selves? Sex Segregation by Field of Study in 44 Countries." American Journal of Sociology 114:924-76. Charles, Maria, Bridget Harr, Erin Cech and Alexandra Hendley. 2014. "Who Likes Math Where? Gender Differences in Eighth-graders’ Attitudes around the World." International Studies in Sociology of Education 24:85-112.
