Donald Bren COR Seminar
Dr. Andrew Penner
Assistant professor – Sociology
UC Irvine
Date: Friday, June 7, 2013
Talk: 3:00 PM – 4.00 PM
Location: 6011 Donald Bren Hall
Abstract: Research on gender differences in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields typically focuses on the underrepresentation of women, attributing gender differences to factors like the chilly climate in these fields and women’s choices to avoid STEM. The present study extends this literature in two ways. First, we examine where women who leave STEM fields go, and whether their choices to opt out of STEM should be conceptualized as under-persistence. Second, we examine whether men persist excessively in the face of negative feedback in these same fields. Using a novel experimental paradigm, we find evidence that men tended to choose mathematics over verbal questions in a testing environment where the mathematics problems were extremely difficult and they were paid for performance. Corroborating evidence of this male “over-persistence effect” is also found in college STEM coursetaking behavior, where men are more likely to re-take STEM courses after failing them.