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  • Item type:Publication,
    Pipeline vs. Choice: The Global Gender Gap in STEM Applications
    (2025-08)
    Ahimbisibwe, Isaac
    ;
    Altjmed Adam
    ;
    Artemov Gregory
    ;
    Barrios-Fernandez Andres
    ;
    Bizopoulou, Aspasia
    Women account for only 35% of global STEM graduates, a share that has remained unchanged for a decade. We use administrative microdata from centralized university admissions in ten systems to deliver the first cross-national decomposition of the STEM gender gap into a pipeline gap (academic preparedness) and a choice gap (first-choice field conditional on eligibility). In deferred-acceptance platforms where eligibility is score-based, we isolate preferences from access. The pipeline gap varies widely, from -19 to +31 percentage points across education systems. By contrast, the choice gap is remarkably stable: high-scoring women are 25 percentage points less likely than men to rank STEM first.
  • Item type:Publication,
    Gender Differences in University Enrollment and STEM Major: The Role of Tuition Policy in Australia
    (2025-09-15)
    Cuff, Katherine
    ;
    Gamarra Rondinel Ana
    ;
    Payne A. Abigail
    We analyze whether men and women respond differently to tuition variation for both university entry and STEM major choice, using a 30-year Australian individual-level administrative dataset. The Australian setting is unique: tuition fees are regulated, students can defer payment through income-contingent loans, and universities receive discipline-specific government subsidies. We find women consistently enrolled at higher rates than men, on average 14 percentage points between 1991 and 2020, with the gap widening over the period from 10 to 16 percentage points. By contrast, men were more likely to register in STEM fields. This STEM gap has remained stable in traditional STEM disciplines, but the gap has narrowed since 2005 when including Health in the definition of STEM. We find that women respond more positively than men to tuition increases in terms of overall enrollment. Effects on STEM participation, however, are less clear and vary across time. The STEM choice patterns suggest systematic gender differences in incentives and behavior, reflecting factors such as men’s stronger engagement with higher-paying non-university jobs, higher expected returns to traditional STEM fields for men, narrower earnings dispersion for women across fields, and gender differences in cost sensitivity and risk aversion. Our findings highlight how tuition policy interacts with gender-specific incentives to shape both university enrollment and major choices.
  • Item type:Publication,
    The gender gap in STEM: (Female) teenagers' ICT skills and subsequent career paths
    (RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen, 2023)
    Hertweck, Friederike
    ;
    Lehner, Judith
    Skills shortage in the fields of Sciences, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) poses a significant challenge for industries globally. This study examines the interrelationship between high school students' gender, their proficiency in Information and Communication Technology (ICT), and their career preferences in the STEM domain. Based on representative data for German teenagers, our study shows that female adolescents are less likely to choose a career in STEM unless they have strong ICT skills in secondary school. The relationship does not hold for male students. Our findings can be explained with evidence that teenagers sort into occupations they believe to be good at and that female teenagers rather underestimate their true potential. Using different empirical approaches, we also show that ICT skills act as a moderator and not as a mediator in the gender-specific choice of training upon graduating from secondary school.