2010 - Questioning a White Male Advantage in STEM: Examining Disparities in College Major by Gender and Race/Ethnicity

Attribution: Riegle-Crumb, Catherine, & King, Barbara
Researchers: Barbara KingCatherine Riegle-Crumb
University Affiliation: University of Texas, Austin
Email: riegle@austin.utexas.edu
Research Question:
The authors investigate gender and racial/ethnic disparities in STEM fields, with an eye toward the role of academic preparation and attitudes in shaping disparities.
Published: Yes
Journal Name or Institutional Affiliation: Educational Researcher
Journal Entry: Vol. 39 No.9 Pp. 656-664
Year: 2010
Findings:
  1. Comparing female students from different racial/ethnic groups, the authors find no significant differences between the percentages of Black, Hispanic, and White women in STEM fields. Among male students, chi-square tests also reveal no statistically significant differences in the distribution of college majors by race/ethnicity. The data do indicate that the physical science and engineering fields are clearly dominated by men, but not, as might be expected, disproportionately by White men.
  2. Among 4-year college matriculants, minority students of both genders were less academically prepared on average than White males, with Black youth falling the farthest behind.
  3. White males exhibit the highest levels of confidence in their math ability in comparison with allother groups; yet their confidence is only slightly higher than that of Black and Hispanic males. In contrast, Black male students report the highest affect toward math of any group, including White males.
  4. After accounting for high school preparation, the odds of declaring a PS/E major are two times greater for Black males than for White males.
  5. Male Hispanic college matriculants remain as likely as White males to pursue physical science or engineering majors regardless of differences in attitudes and academic preparation.
  6. The odds of White women or Hispanic women declaring a physical science or engineering major versus a non-STEM major remain far below the odds of White men even after accounting for differences in attitudes and academic preparation.
  7. Once academic preparation is taken into account, the relative odds of Black females declaring a physical science or engineering major increase to just less than half that of White males.</li.
  8. The authors find virtually no evidence that math attitudes contribute to disparities in choice of a PS/E major.
  9. In contrast to PS/E fields, biological sciences draw relatively equitably from all groups.
Scholarship Types: Journal Article Reporting Empirical ResearchKeywords: Academic AchievementAfrican AmericanEquityGenderPrecollege FactorsPreparationRaceSTEMRegions: NationalMethodologies: QuantitativeResearch Designs: Secondary Survey DataAnalysis Methods: Descriptive StatisticsMultinomial Logistic Regression Sampling Frame:College Students
Sampling Types: Nationally RepresentativeAnalysis Units: StudentData Types: Quantitative-Longitudinal
Data Description:
    • Educational Longitudinal Study (ELS) of 2002. The authors restrict their analyses to Black, Hispanic, and non-Hispanic White students who were enrolled in a 4-year degree-granting institution in 2006, which was the sophomore year of college for “on-time” students, and those who reported having declared a college major. The number of students in the analytic sample is 7600.
    • The authors distinguish among physical science and engineering majors (which includes math and computer science), biological science majors, and non-STEM majors.

The authors define academic preparation with three measures: test scores, grades, and course-taking. Course-taking in both math and science was also taken from students’ high school transcripts and coded as an ordinal variable capturing the highest level course that students reached in each subject by their senior year.

  • Attitudes are measured by two separate scales. The first taps students’ confidence in math, as evidenced by their responses to questions about whether they can do well on math tests, understand difficult math texts and classes, do well on math assignments, and master math class skills. The second indicator, math affect, summarizes students’ responses to questions about whether they get totally absorbed in math, think math is fun, and think math is important.
  • The dependent variables were declaring a physical science or engineering major versus a non-STEM major, and then the odds of declaring a biological science versus a non-STEM major.

 

Theoretical Framework:
Relevance:STEM Entrance and Majoring in STEM
Archives: K-16 STEM Abstracts