Class, Gender, and STEM Career Expectations:  A Cross-National Trend Analysis of Teenage Plans

Sikora, Joanna

Cross-national comparisons typically explore how gender or class independently influence STEM career expectations of teenagers. However, less attention has been given to how these factors intersect. Most studies contrast broad science vs. non-science categories, but this analysis examines horizontal gender segregation of STEM occupational plans grouped into two categories. We distinguish between biology, environmental, and health sciences— fields construed as suitable for and preferred by females —and compare them with computing, engineering, and mathematics—fields more often associated with male preferences and aptitudes.

This paper focuses primarily on WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) societies, and the goal is to highlight the intersection of class and gender within them. Using data from the OECD’s Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), collected between 2000 and 2022, we analyse overtime trends in how class and gender jointly influence adolescents’ expectations for careers in these distinct science field groups. Specifically, we consider whether youth from higher socioeconomic backgrounds form significantly less gender-segregated career expectations within STEM fields and whether this convergence has grown with time.

Beginning by comparing comprehensive systems like Australia and the USA with early stratifying systems like Austria and Germany and late stratifying systems like Finland and Norway, we end by examining patterns in 30 OECD countries that collected data on teenage career expectations between 2000 and 2022. Our findings support the conjecture that gender-liberal ideologies counter gender essentialist ideologies among socio-economically privileged youth while holding a firmer grip on upward mobility plans of lower SES youth. We demonstrate that STEM plans for higher-class youth exhibit less gender segregation over time. However, the rate of this convergence varies by science field.