Women have made substantial gains in representation in some STEM fields (e.g., biology, chemistry, math) but not others (e.g., physics, computer science, engineering). Researchers have called for a STEM field-specific approach to investigate the persistent gender gap. While some studies indicate that males report higher self-efficacy than females, which may contribute to the persistent gender gap, other studies do not. The current research used Hunter–Schmidt meta-analysis to clarify the relationship between gender and self-efficacy in STEM fields where women are underrepresented compared to fields where representation has improved. A meta-analysis of 145 effects found gender differences in self-efficacy in all but one field (biology), but the magnitude of the difference was field-specific. In computer science and physics, two fields in which underrepresentation most strongly persists, there were greater gender differences in self-efficacy compared to the other fields. Findings also highlight participant educational stage as a potentially important factor in explaining heterogeneity of gender differences in self-efficacy within STEM fields and as an area for continued research.
McMichael et al. (Mon,) studied this question.
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