Girls Gone STEM: Understanding the relationship between early adversity and willingness to compete in STEM fields

Abstract

Given the significant challenges stereotypes and societal gender expectations present, women pursuing STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) degrees and careers remain grossly underrepresented in the United States. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate whether women who have faced adversity in the attainment of secondary education are more likely to pursue STEM post-secondary degrees, compared to those that did not experience adversity. The data used came from the National Center for Education Statistics’ (NCES) Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study. A male population of students with and without adversity was also tested for STEM participation for comparison. The proportion of males and females pursuing STEM degrees was measured in respect to two different adversity indicators: income and race. The findings show that minority students pursue STEM degrees at a higher proportion than their white counterparts; this finding is stronger for woman than for men.