– There is a pervasive gender gap in MSC in nearly all fields, but also a great deal of variation in MSC among the STEM fields.
– The salience of MSC in predicting STEM major selection has generally become weaker over time for women (but not for men).
– For women, the salience of math self-concept has grown only in the prediction of selecting majors in math/statistics.
– For men, the predictive power of math confidence has become weaker in predicting major choice in only one field: computer science
– While students’ beliefs about their math ability are higher among those majoring in STEM fields relative to all majors, there is a great deal of variation in demonstrated math self-concept among the STEM fields, from a high in math/statistics to a low in the biological sciences.
– Though math self-concept is nearly always a significant positive predictor of students’ decisions to major in STEM, its salience in predicting major choice has fluctuated over time.
– The results suggest that women’s lower math confidence has become a less powerful explanation for their underrepresentation in STEM fields.
– A ‘‘one-size-fits-all” approach to STEM recruitment is not supported by the results of this study. Efforts to diversify STEM- both in research and in practice- need to be approached at the field level in order to best understand what attracts women and men to a particular subfield of STEM.