The Influence of Gender Role on Gender Segregation of STEM Majors in Chinese Universities

DOI

10.2991/assehr.k.210806.183How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Gender role, Gender segregation, STEM, High school

Abstract

Science and technology are the primary productive forces of a country. However, in today’s STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields, gender segregation remains an issue. Half of the world’s population is female, yet women face considerable barriers and are underrepresented in STEM education and occupations. This article mainly focuses on STEM education, to explore how gender role is shaped and reinforced in high school and how it leads to gender segregation of STEM majors in Chinese universities. The findings show that gender stereotype leads female students to devalue self-cognition and self-assessment and, as a result, they often underestimate their ability in STEM disciplines. Second, the educational policy in high school causes female students to prioritize liberal art subjects at the expense of natural science subjects. Third, high school curriculum, textbooks, and other teaching materials that contain gender bias and unhealthy teacher-student interactions reinforce the stereotype of gender role. Fourth, the decisions of majors are strongly affected by traditional Chinese culture that represents the preferences and career expectations for different genders. At the end of this article, implications will be provided.

Copyright

© 2021, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Wei Cong
AU  - Jiale Ding
AU  - Jingxuan Gu
AU  - Ruoxin Jia
AU  - Jingjing Zeng
PY  - 2021
DA  - 2021/08/09
TI  - The Influence of Gender Role on Gender Segregation of STEM Majors in Chinese Universities
BT  - Proceedings of the 2021 5th International Seminar on Education, Management and Social Sciences (ISEMSS 2021)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 962
EP  - 967
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.210806.183
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.210806.183
ID  - Cong2021
ER  -