The fraction of women enrolling in mathematics degree programs in the UK and the Netherlands has remained constant despite rising female participation in higher education¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associational r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2013 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person · overdue for a recheck since 2018: baselines and conditions change

Subclaims¶

q2 i? The relation between the fraction of female mathematics students as a proportion of all female students and the corresponding male fraction has remained constant over the last 20 years in the Netherlands and the last 10 years in the United Kingdom. → Stoet G 2013

Evidence¶

Stoet G 2013¶

Stoet G, Geary DC (2013) Sex Differences in Mathematics and Reading Achievement Are Inversely Related: Within- and Across-Nation Assessment of 10 Years of PISA Data. PLoS ONE 8(3): e57988. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0057988

q2 · i? · associational · r2

Descriptive secondary analysis (Figure S1) of public enrollment data from the British HEIDI database and Dutch Statistics Netherlands. The article reports the relative proportion of female to male mathematics students "stayed relatively constant"; in 2011 the first-year male-to-female ratio was 2.23:1 in the Netherlands and 1.63:1 in the UK.

"Our own analysis (Figure S1) of the fraction of women that enrolled in a mathematics degree program at universities in the United Kingdom and The Netherlands (both countries have these numbers publicly available) shows that the relation between the fraction of female mathematics students as a proportion of all female students and the fraction of male mathematics students as a proportion of all male students has remained constant over the last 20 years in the Netherlands and the last 10 years in the United Kingdom."

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

• Gender — predictor: outcomes differ by group: a gap reflecting circumstances and treatment, not a cause

Related Claims¶

• Girls show less confidence and interest in math and science from early adolescence, and a strong math/science self-concept predicts course choice and performance for both genders — the general claim this finding bears on, with the studies behind it
• SAT scores underpredict the academic performance of high school girls, who average lower scores than boys despite higher grades — related
• Women admitted to MIT with lower SAT math scores perform as well as men in freshman math classes — related
• Female STEM majors report significantly lower sense of belonging than male majors — related
• Gender equality indicators moderate gender differences among top-performing math students: tertiary enrollment ratios predict the share of female students and their achievement profiles — related