Bachelor’s degrees in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) are tough to get. But two students with similar high school preparation and interest in STEM should have similar probabilities of obtaining one, right?
Well, they don’t. They differ greatly if one is a man and one is a woman or one is white and the other is Black, Hispanic or Indigenous. In fact, even when both students survive first-semester “weed out” classes like calculus, our new study found shocking differences by gender and race. For example, a white man has a 48% chance of getting a STEM degree while a comparable Black woman has only a 28% chance. Why do we have these disparities, and more importantly, how do we change them?
Dr. Nate Brown
Sources of Disparity
The students in our model have comparable high school preparation, interest in STEM, and academic performance during their first semester in college, so differences in K-12 preparation or grades in intro STEM courses are unlikely to account for our findings. And blaming these disparities on race and gender is incorrect, racist and sexist. Period. We need to look elsewhere, and evidence suggests we STEM faculty should spend some time under the microscope, no matter how uncomfortable it may be.
For instance, studies show STEM faculty, like all faculty, exhibit gender and racial bias in hiring. Studies in non-STEM contexts reveal racial bias in grading; so, it seems likely that STEM faculty are also biased graders. Research has shown a STEM instructor’s belief about intelligence impacts grades. When instructors hold a growth mindset, believing intelligence grows through cognitive training and effort, then underrepresented students typically get a B in their class. When they hold a fixed mindset, believing intelligence is essentially fixed at birth, then those students typically get a B-. Neuroscience supports a growth mindset, but fixed mindsets are common in mathematics, a notorious STEM gatekeeper, and we shudder to think how much it contributes to racial and gender disparities.
