Study: STEM Gender Gap Narrower at Schools With High Math SAT Test Scores
Credit: Abraham Gonzalez Fernandez / Getty Images- A new study found that the gender gap in physics, engineering, and computer science is closing at institutions serving students with higher math SAT scores. But it’s widening at institutions serving students with lower math SAT scores.
- Women may be facing a “brilliance barrier” of implicit beliefs that STEM requires an innate talent and that men possess that talent more than women.
- Universities, organizations, and researchers have been making efforts to break the brilliance barrier by providing more support to K-12 girls and college women in STEM.
A recent study published in Science found that colleges and universities that have students with higher math SAT scores have less pronounced gender gaps in physics, engineering, and computer science (PECS) than institutions serving students with lower math SAT scores.
At institutions serving students with higher math SAT scores, the ratio of men to women in PECS was 2-to-1 in 2002. The gap closed to 1.5-to-1 two decades later, according to the study.
At schools serving students with lower math SAT scores (around 450), the gap more than doubled. The ratio of men to women in PECS was 3.5-to-1 in 2002. That expanded to 7.1-to-1 in 2022.
Despite the gender gap closing at some schools, the study’s author, Joseph Cimpian, told BestColleges women still face “brilliance barriers” despite having equal or better educational preparation.
These brilliance barriers are implicit beliefs that physics and computer science — two fields within the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) discipline — require innate talent and that men possess that talent more than women.
Why Is the Gap Closing at Institutions Serving High Math SAT Scorers?
Cimpian, a professor of economics and education policy at New York University, said there are a few possible reasons for the gender gap decreasing at schools with high math SAT scorers:
- Targeted interventions at selective institutions (mentorship programs, supportive peer networks)
- Greater resource investment at top schools
- More women faculty and students at selective institutions creating a positive feedback loop
- Institutional climate differences that may be more welcoming to women at selective schools
“We don’t quite have the definitive answer about why this is happening just yet — and we’re exploring it more right now with additional datasets — but the work to date suggests that institutional context matters tremendously, even above and beyond the individual student level attributes,” Cimpian told BestColleges.
“This highlights why broad statements about ‘the STEM gender gap’ miss important nuance. Our findings indicate that while we’ve made progress in some contexts, interventions need to be tailored to different institutional environments.”
The Gender Gap Is Widening at Less-Selective Institutions
While the PECS gender gap is closing at schools serving students with higher math SAT scores, the opposite is happening at schools with students who had lower scores on their math SATs.
Cimpian told BestColleges that this may be happening for several reasons — one being the brilliance barrier.
Another potential reason could be that many women — even high-achieving women — may question if they’ll fit in within PECS environments.
Gender biases in early education and a lack of representation of women STEM teachers and role models in K-12 push against the idea that women can be successful in STEM.
Cimpian told BestColleges that the data suggests men’s persistence in PECS is less sensitive to performance feedback. Lower-achieving men may discount negative performances, while equally lower-achieving women may interpret the same signals as evidence they do not belong.
How Are Organizations and Institutions Closing the Gender Gap?
Organizations like Girls Who Code and Black Girls Code and initiatives by researchers like New York University Assistant Professor Lauren Mims are letting girls know they are welcome in STEM.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mims partnered with entrepreneur Eunique Jones Gibson to send boxes with learning materials about Black history moments or icons, like astronaut Mae Jemison, to 100 Black Midwestern families making under $30,000 a year.
Institutions like Spelman College, a historically Black women’s college, are working to bring the names of other historic Black women in STEM — such as Alice Ball, Katherine Johnson, Lisa Cook, and Janelle Jones — into the public sphere.
Spelman’s Center of Excellence for Minority Women in STEM is creating an online hub and database dedicated to the research, stories, and accomplishments of Black women in STEM.
“For most of the STEM disciplines, it’s not common to have a Black person, nor is it common to have a woman,” Miesha Williams, associate professor of economics at Spelman, previously told BestColleges.
“And having somewhere that houses that intersectionality and allows people to contribute data stories and research, we’re hoping to have a premier avenue for which people can find the information without having to scour the internet where it’s hardly found anyway.”