Dataset Information

Pathways to Science and Engineering Bachelor's Degrees for Men and Women.

ABSTRACT: Despite the striking reversal of the gender gap in educational attainment and the near-gender parity in math performance, women pursue science and engineering (S/E) degrees at much lower rates than their male peers do. Current efforts to increase the number of women in these fields focus on different life-course periods but lack a clear understanding of the importance of these periods and how orientations toward S/E fields develop over time. In this article, we examine the gendered pathways to a S/E bachelor's degree from middle school to high school and college based on a representative sample from the 1973 to 1974 birth cohort. Using a counterfactual decomposition analysis, we determine the relative importance of these different life-course periods and thereby inform the direction of future research and policy. Our findings confirm previous research that highlights the importance of early encouragement for gender differences in S/E degrees, but our findings also attest to the high school years as a decisive period for the gender gap, while challenging the focus on college in research and policy. Indeed, if female high school seniors had the same orientation toward and preparation for S/E fields as their male peers, the gender gap in S/E degrees would be closed by as much as 82 percent.

SUBMITTER: Legewie J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4116814 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Pathways to Science and Engineering Bachelor's Degrees for Men and Women.

Legewie Joscha J DiPrete Thomas A TA

Sociological science 20140201

Despite the striking reversal of the gender gap in educational attainment and the near-gender parity in math performance, women pursue science and engineering (S/E) degrees at much lower rates than their male peers do. Current efforts to increase the number of women in these fields focus on different life-course periods but lack a clear understanding of the importance of these periods and how orientations toward S/E fields develop over time. In this article, we examine the gendered pathways to a ...[more]

PMID: 25089284

Similar Datasets

Project description:Advancements in animal models and cell culture techniques have been invaluable in the elucidation of molecular events and mechanisms regulating muscle atrophy. However, few studies have examined muscle atrophy in humans using modern experimental techniques. The purpose of this study was to examine and validate changes in global gene transcription during immobilization-induced muscle atrophy in humans. Healthy men and women (N=24) were subjected to two weeks of unilateral limb immobilization, with muscle biopsies obtained before, and after 48 hours (48H) and 14 days (14D) of immobilization. Both muscle cross sectional area (~ 5 %) and strength (10-20 %) were significantly reduced in men and women after 14D of immobilization. Micro-array analysis of total RNA extracted from biopsy samples uncovered 575 and 3,128 probes representing multiple genes, which were significantly altered at 48H and 14D, respectively. As a group, genes involved in mitochondrial bioenergetics and carbohydrate metabolism were predominant features at both 48H and 14D, with genes involved in protein synthesis and degradation significantly down-regulated and up-regulated, respectively, at 14D of muscle atrophy. There was also a significant decrease in the protein content of mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase, and the enzyme activity of cytochrome c oxidase and citrate synthase after 14D of immobilization. Furthermore, protein ubiquitination and oxidative damage were significantly increased by 48H and 14D of immobilization, respectively. These results suggest that transcriptional and post-transcriptional suppression of mitochondrial processes is sustained throughout 14D of immobilization, while protein ubiquitination plays an early but transient role in the progression of immobilization-induced muscle atrophy in humans. 72 samples taken from quadriceps of healthy ambulatory young men and women. Samples were taken at 3 timepoints throughout a 14 day period, the initial sample was taken at time 0 (PRECAST), then the limb was immobilized via a brace, and the 2nd sample was taken at 48 hours (CAST02D). The third sample was taken following 14 days of immobilization (CAST14D).

Project description:Based on Social Cognitive Career Theory principles, the present study sought to investigate whether stereotype threat experiences could act as a barrier and reduce the persistence of women in math-intensive activities. More specifically, we assessed whether the experimental activation of stereotypes about women's lower math capabilities affected the performance, persistence, and self-selected difficulty of engineering students in a math task which required sustained effort. We also evaluated the relationships between these effects and the participants' pre-testing gender-science stereotypes and math self-concept. A sample of 340 engineering students (175 and 165 self-identified as males and females, respectively) were recruited and randomly assigned to a control (Con) or stereotype threat (StA) condition to form four similarly sized groups. All participants rated their self-concept in four academic domains (math, chemistry, physics, and coding), completed the gender-science Implicit Association Test, and a "reading comprehension task" that served to promote the stereotype threat manipulation immediately before facing a modified version of the Math Effort Task (M-MET). We observed that, in the control condition, M-MET performance, self-selected difficulty, and persistence were similar in female and male participants, independent of their gender-science implicit stereotypes but correlated to their math self-concept scores. In contrast, the StA condition triggered opposite effects in female and male students, so they showed decreased/enhanced M-MET performance and self-selected difficulty, respectively. This experimental condition also resulted in enhanced persistence of the male students without affecting the number of trials completed by female students. These effects were correlated with the strength of the participants' gender-science implicit stereotypes but not with their math self-concept scores. In fact, as revealed by finer-grain analyses, stereotype threat only had a significant impact on individuals harboring stereotypical gender-science implicit associations. Therefore, it is concluded that: (1) stereotypes can promote differences between male and female engineering students in their performance, self-confidence, and persistence in math-related activities; (2) These effects seem to be more prominent in individuals implicitly perceiving science as a masculine domain. The relevance of these findings to explain women's enhanced abandonment rates of math-intensive studies is discussed.

Project description:BackgroundWhile fertility rates have decreased during the second half of the 20th century in Japan, little is known regarding trends in the number of children that men and women have across birth cohorts and whether these differ by education and income.MethodsWe used data from four rounds of the National Fertility Survey (1992, 2005, 2010 and 2015) and included men and women aged 40-49 years (16728 men and 17628 women). By 5-year birth cohorts, we assessed the distribution of number of children (0, 1, 2 and 3 or more) and total fertility (the mean number of children) at completed fertility (age 45-49 or 40-44 years depending on birth cohort). We assessed trends in these fertility outcomes in men and women separately, and by education (no university education; university education) for men and women and by reported annual income (0 to <3 000 000 JPY; 3 000 000 to <6 000 000 JPY; ≥6 000 000 JPY) for men.ResultsWhen comparing those born in 1943-1948 with those born in 1971-1975, the proportion with no children had increased from 14.3 to 39.9% for men and from 11.6 to 27.6% for women. This increase coincided with a decrease in the proportions of individuals with 2 or more children. Total fertility had decreased from 1.92 to 1.17 among men and from 1.96 to 1.42 among women. For men, those with a university degree were more likely to have children than those without a university degree in all birth cohorts except 1943-1947. Men with higher income were more likely to have children across birth cohorts. While the proportion who had children had decreased in all income groups, the decrease was steeper among those in the lowest income group. Among women born 1956-1970, those with a university degree were less likely to have children than those without a university degree; this difference was no longer seen among those born 1971-1975. For both men and women, trends in having children and total fertility across birth cohorts did not differ by educational status.ConclusionsThe decline in the total fertility rate in Japan can be attributed to both an increasing proportion of the population who have no children and a lower number of children among those who have children. Men with lower education and income were less likely to have children and the disparity in the number of children that men have by income had increased in more recent birth cohorts. Among women, higher education was associated with lower fertility, although this pattern was no longer observed among those born in 1971-1975.

Dataset Information

Pathways to Science and Engineering Bachelor's Degrees for Men and Women.

Publications

Pathways to Science and Engineering Bachelor's Degrees for Men and Women.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets