Girls thriving in geek courses

This paper reports findings from a national study of first year STEM students at Australian universities. It focuses on the expectations and experiences of 1547 females and males enrolled in male-dominated courses (physics/astronomy, engineering, IT). The study found no significant sex differences in students’ ratings on a wide range of items including interest in the course, social fit, teaching quality, and intention to complete the course, among others. \ud \ud The paper concludes that high school girls conside\ud ring enrolment in male-dominated STEM courses should find encouragement in the findings that, on balance, many of their university experiences are likely to be no more negative than those of males enrolled in the same courses