IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jopoec/v36y2023i4d10.1007_s00148-023-00959-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Gender equity and the gender gap in STEM: is there really a paradox?

Author

Listed:
  • William Jergins

    (University of Arkansas at Little Rock)

Abstract

This study uses an epidemiological approach to consider how culturally-inherited beliefs about appropriate gender roles may affect women’s relative representation in STEM. Prior literature has generally documented an inverse relationship between gender equity and women’s relative representation in STEM, known as the gender-equity paradox. When limiting to the sample of home countries to those considered in prior literature, I obtain robust evidence of a gender-equity paradox on both first and second-generation immigrants living in the USA. However, when I consider the full sample of home countries available, women’s relative representation in STEM no longer appears to decrease as equity increases. These results cast doubt on the existence of a gender-equity paradox between culturally-inherited beliefs about gender equality and women’s representation in STEM and have important implications for policy design.

Suggested Citation

  • William Jergins, 2023. "Gender equity and the gender gap in STEM: is there really a paradox?," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(4), pages 3029-3056, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:jopoec:v:36:y:2023:i:4:d:10.1007_s00148-023-00959-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s00148-023-00959-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00148-023-00959-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s00148-023-00959-9?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:jopoec:v:36:y:2023:i:4:d:10.1007_s00148-023-00959-9. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.