The Impact of Gender on Interest in Science Topics and the Choice of Scientific and Technical Vocations

Abstract

Many countries belonging to the Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD) note a shortage of highly qualified scientific‐technical personnel, whereas demand for such employees is growing. Therefore, how to motivate (female) high performers in science or mathematics to pursue scientific careers is of special interest. The sample for this study is taken from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2006. It comprises 7,819 high performers either in sciences or mathematics from representative countries of four different education systems which generally performed well or around the OECD average in PISA 2006: Switzerland, Finland, Australia, and Korea. The results give evidence that gender specificity and gender inequity in science education are a cross‐national problem. Interests in specific science disciplines only partly support vocational choices in scientific‐technical fields. Instead, gender and gender stereotypes play a significant role. Enhancing the utility of a scientific vocational choice is expected to soften the gender impact.

Keywords:

• Scientific literacy
• Science career
• Interest in science
• Large‐scale studies
• International comparisons

Notes

1. Originally, Fend (2003) used the terms Asian countries and Scandinavian countries instead of (North‐)East Asian countries and Nordic countries. These terms are not quite adequate. The comments on Asian education systems refer only to the countries of (North‐)East Asia (e.g. Korea or Japan), and Finland was included in the Scandinavian country group although Finland is not a Scandinavian but a Nordic country.

2. Iceland and Norway performed significantly below the OECD average in sciences.

3. The Swiss sample considers the high performers of all three language regions (74.6% German‐speaking, 22.7% French‐speaking, and 2.7% Italian‐speaking students).

4. The index self‐concept in science, although a crucial determinant of vocational choices, has not been accounted for in research question (4), as the variances of self‐concept for high performers are small and would not appear as significant in the models. The means of self‐concept in science differ significantly by gender throughout the countries, in favour of males.

5. The number of students choosing a scientific career reported in this paper is higher than the number of students of the official international variable self science‐related career at 30 (SRC_S). This difference is due to the application of a more detailed and comprehensive assessment of scientific careers.

6. Australia implemented the whitepaper ‘Science for Australian Schools’ in the 1980s, which comprises intercurricular aspects such as gender equity. The attendance and achievement of female students in mathematics and science in secondary school have been supported by coeducation, mono‐education, individual programs, mentoring programs, and female teacher education in science subjects (Cook, 2003). In Korea, a gender programme for sciences known as Women into Science and Engineering (WISE) was launched in 2001 and implemented from (junior) high school to university (Ki Won & Heisook, 2007). In 2002, Korea also launched a five‐year plan to generally promote young people in science and engineering by facilitating research and by providing students with science‐experience opportunities outside regular science classes (OECD, 2008). The plan included teacher training programmes. The national project to improve skills in mathematics and natural sciences (LUMA programme, n.d.) was launched in 1996 at the Finnish Ministry of Education. One further goal was to raise interest in learning mathematics and natural sciences among girls and encourage them to pursue scientific careers. In Switzerland, gender equity has been an issue for the Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education (EDK) since the 1970s. Nevertheless, there are no programmes to specifically foster equity in science education in primary or lower secondary school (Grossenbacher, 2006).