Is Entering STEM Socially Contagious? Contextual Factors in Women's Educational Decisions

IntroductionThe last several decades have witnessed a substantial rise in the number of women entering science, technology, engineering and mathematics majors (STEM). Despite this increasing trend, some maths-related majors (maths, biology) have become more gender-balanced, while other remain strongly male-dominated (technology and engineering) (Wotipka and Ramirez 2001, Smith 2011, Cheryan 2011). One explanation is the stereotypical belief that pursuing technology and engineering career require skills "naturally" attributed to men, e.g. logical thinking or reasoning. Some studies suggest that circulation of such stereo-types may undermine women's self-beliefs on ability, increase anxiety toward science, and finally discouraged from pursuing career in STEM (Smeding 2012). Other explanation argue that gender imbalance in STEM fields is rooted in different vocational interests of men and women: on general women prefer jobs that involves interaction with other people, while men are more like to choose working with machines and tools (Halpern 2012). In line with this, women are generally expected to prefer teaching and medicine where contacts with people are more intense and men are opting for engineering, technology and other occupations more dependent on devices. The above frameworks are often applied to understand why women prefer to choose humanistic and social science majors over engineering, but they do not explain stratification within STEM majors itself. This poses a question on what distinguishes women who decide to study male-dominated over gender-balanced majors within STEM? In this paper I argue that choice of male-dominated major depends on the composition of individual's social network. The analysis of a series of in-depth qualitative interviews conducted with female students from different STEM majors in two Polish universities suggests that the decision to choose male-dominated majors is more likely when a significant role model (SRM) in present in a close social network. An SRM is define here as a person who is more advanced in technology or engineering and has a lasting interaction with the individual who makes the decision. Using the framework of social contagion theory (Burt 1987) I argue that an SRM "infects" other individuals in the social network with the idea to pursue STEM majors.Gender Gap in STEM Majors in PolandFor some time now the governments of many countries have struggled with shortages in the highly qualified STEM labor force. To prevent this problem, few years ago Polish government initiated a program of financial support for students pursuing the most economically strategic STEM fields. Students who were admitted to the first academic year were entitled to receive a special scholarship. This incentive, supported by labor market demands, contributed to the relative boosting of number of students at the technical universities. Number of students in technical universities has been increasing even though general number of young people who decide to enter tertiary education in Poland has been decreasing (the general net enrolment ratio dropped to 49% in 2013 from 54% in 2010 GUS 2014). Along with this, the number of students and graduates at engineering and technical majors increased, while number of students at social sciences and humanities majors have been shrinking. The number of women among students in technical universities has been systematically increasing since 90. and reached 37% in 2014 (GUS 2013), but the share of women varies significantly between universities. The universities which offer wide range of majors, including social sciences and health sciences, have the highest percentage of women (reaching 50%), but on traditional technical universities women comprise about V3 (Report Women on Technical Universities 2016). Similar divergence exists between particular majors. The largest share of women occurred in manufacturing and production (48%) and building and architecture (42%). …