Department of Psychology, University of Washington.
Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University.
Psychol Bull. 2017 Jan;143(1):1-35. doi: 10.1037/bul0000052. Epub 2016 Oct 10.
Women obtain more than half of U.S. undergraduate degrees in biology, chemistry, and mathematics, yet they earn less than 20% of computer science, engineering, and physics undergraduate degrees (National Science Foundation, 2014a). Gender differences in interest in computer science, engineering, and physics appear even before college. Why are women represented in some science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields more than others? We conduct a critical review of the most commonly cited factors explaining gender disparities in STEM participation and investigate whether these factors explain differential gender participation across STEM fields. Math performance and discrimination influence who enters STEM, but there is little evidence to date that these factors explain why women's underrepresentation is relatively worse in some STEM fields. We introduce a model with three overarching factors to explain the larger gender gaps in participation in computer science, engineering, and physics than in biology, chemistry, and mathematics: (a) masculine cultures that signal a lower sense of belonging to women than men, (b) a lack of sufficient early experience with computer science, engineering, and physics, and (c) gender gaps in self-efficacy. Efforts to increase women's participation in computer science, engineering, and physics may benefit from changing masculine cultures and providing students with early experiences that signal equally to both girls and boys that they belong and can succeed in these fields. (PsycINFO Database Record
女性获得了美国生物学、化学和数学专业本科以上学位的一半以上，但她们仅获得了计算机科学、工程和物理专业本科以上学位的不到 20%（美国国家科学基金会，2014a）。对计算机科学、工程和物理的兴趣的性别差异甚至在进入大学之前就已经存在。为什么女性在某些科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）领域的代表性高于其他领域？我们对解释 STEM 参与性别差异的最常见因素进行了批判性审查，并调查这些因素是否解释了 STEM 领域之间的性别参与差异。数学成绩和歧视影响谁进入 STEM，但迄今为止，几乎没有证据表明这些因素可以解释为什么女性在某些 STEM 领域的代表性相对较差。我们引入了一个包含三个总体因素的模型，以解释计算机科学、工程和物理领域的参与率性别差距大于生物学、化学和数学领域的原因：（a）男性文化信号表明女性的归属感低于男性；（b）缺乏足够的早期计算机科学、工程和物理经验；（c）自我效能感的性别差距。为了增加女性在计算机科学、工程和物理领域的参与度，可能需要改变男性文化，并为学生提供早期经验，向女孩和男孩发出同样的信号，即他们在这些领域有归属感并能够取得成功。（PsycINFO 数据库记录）
