The Puzzle of Missing Female Engineers: Gender Disparities in Major Choice

Females are severely under-represented in certain STEM subjects, notably engineering. In this paper, I use administrative datasets from North Carolina and a national survey of college freshmen to document the gender gap in engineering participation from the sec-ond half of high school through postsecondary education. The magnitude of disparity is stable throughout this period. Women are not significantly more likely to attrite during col-lege, suggesting that observed disparities in this period are the result of an under-supplied, rather than leaky, pipeline. I decompose the gender gap into several explanatory accounts, including differences in academic preparation, beliefs in academic ability, and individual preferences spanning prosocial values and professional goals. Disparities in SAT scores and high school GPA account for 3 to 5 % of the aggregate gap. Female students ’ lack of academic self-confidence, even after conditioning on objective measures of performance, explain 10%. Other-regarding preferences and professional goals in the arts and sciences capture a further 15%. Taken together, ability beliefs and measurable preferences account for one-quarter of the overall disparity, while pre-college skill differences play a small role. Moreover, broad-based policies such as expanding STEM curriculum may exacerbate the gender gap without targeted interventions to elevate girls ’ academic self-confidence and ensure equal opportunities in the formation of major and occupational preferences