Dissertation: M.A. Marco Balducci: The gender equality paradox in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education: a focus on intraindividual academic strengths

Why do gender-equal countries like Finland have fewer women in science and engineering than countries like Saudi Arabia?

While many assume that sex differences in educational paths should shrink as societies become more egalitarian, research often finds the opposite: in the most gender-equal countries, women are even less represented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. This surprising pattern is known as the gender equality paradox in STEM, and it’s the focus of my dissertation.

To understand why, I examined students’ academic profiles, what we call intraindividual strengths. That is, whether a student is relatively stronger in reading, math, or science compared to their overall performance. Typically, girls are stronger in reading, while boys are stronger in math or science. These intraindividual strengths appear to influence career choices and may partly explain why fewer women enter STEM fields.

The first part of the dissertation reviews research on sex differences in academic skills and how these relate to gender equality. The second and third parts use international PISA data from 2006 to 2018 to examine how sex differences in intraindividual strengths vary with national levels of gender equality.

The results reveal a consistent trend: in more gender-equal countries, girls’ strength in reading and boys’ strength in science become more pronounced. In contrast, differences in math appear largely unaffected by gender equality. These findings challenge purely social explanations of sex differences and suggest that individual traits also play a key role in shaping educational choices, perhaps even more so in egalitarian societies.

This work offers a fresh perspective on why women may remain underrepresented in STEM and points to the need for more nuanced policy responses.