Girls' lower STEM career aspirations Across Different Countries: A Case-Specific Analysis- USA, Germany, Saudi Arabia, and Mexico

Abstract

In most of the countries, women have made immense improvement in educational attainment and labor market participation in recent decades. However, they are still under-represented in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education and subsequent careers. The most plausible way to explain women’s lower-representation in STEM is to investigate the career expectations of 15- years old adolescents who are going through challenges as they start tracking future majors and careers. Thus, it is crucial to understand which factors influence their career goals to address the gender gap in STEM. Prior studies primarily concentrated on either performance- based explanation or the influence of psychological factors (self-efficacy) in influencing STEM career aspirations, overlooking the mediation roles of self-efficacy. This investigation tackles this gap by exploring whether self-efficacy in math can mediate the gender gap in STEM-aspirations after controlling for academic performances and parental socioeconomic status across four nations—the United States, Germany, Saudi Arabia, and Mexico. Utilizing data from the 2022 Program for International Student Assessment, this research applies logistic regression with AMEs and Fairlie Decomposition to identify the mediation effects of math self-efficacy on STEM aspirations. The results show that whereas gender disparities in math self-efficacy influence girls' lower STEM goals, wider-ranging structural and cultural elements are also significant.