Do women outperform men? Gender differences in participation and performance in STEM and non-STEM university subjects of gender dominance

Abstract

Women are underrepresented in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) degrees in higher education (HE), despite outperforming at other levels of education (Kriesi & Imdorf, 2019). Previous research explains this in terms of stereotype threat and gender dominance (Koch et al., 2022; Hill et al., 2010). Inconsistent findings of a male advantage (Matz et al., 2017) highlight the need for a more detailed examination of student behavior. Our study addresses the research gap on gender differences in performance and participation by examining variations in gender differences in student performance and participation at the module level from two perspectives: 1) between STEM and non-STEM programs, and 2) between female- and male-dominated programs. We use administrative datasets from three undergraduate programs at a large German university. The total of 5,853 cases consist of the 2016-2021 program cohorts in mechanical engineering (male-dominated STEM), political science (male-dominated non-STEM), and sociology (female-dominated non-STEM). Women tend to outperform men in terms of grades, regardless of whether the program is in a STEM or gender-dominated field. The same is true for module exam participation rates in non-STEM programs, while in male-dominated STEM fields they may be outperformed by men, who on the other hand have to retake exams more often than women in these fields. Our findings suggest that when studying gender differences in higher education, it is important to look at detailed behaviors rather than focusing only on overall student success. The study also highlights the importance of comparing not only STEM and non-STEM fields, but also gender dominance, as we see nuanced cross-level effects.