Organizational Behavior Structural drivers of gender differences in careers - the example of STEM

These years´ Nobel Prize in economics to Claudia Goldin has put the focus again on gender disparities in the workplace. Despite the fact that progress has been achieved, gender equality in careers and workplaces remains unfulfilled. This is particularly pronounced in STEM fields. Existing research in behavioral economics and labor economics primarily focuses on identifying gender-based behavioral disparities that impact career trajectories: Differences in competitiveness (Niederle and Vesterlund, 2011); selection of fields, like less math-intensive careers (Kahn and Ginther, 2017); gender differences in risk and social preferences (Croson and Gneezy, 2009); and the influence of personal and social factors (Bertrand, 2011), and differences in flexibility demands (Goldin, 2014).
In our own research we can show for STEM students in a recent, ongoing project (Llavador, Schwieren, Steck, in prep.) that gender differences in behavior are very small once we compare only women who are studying STEM subjects to their male counterparts.
In an older study (Müller & Schwieren, 2012) we could show that gender differences in competitiveness relate to specific differences in personality, namely higher neuroticism of women. This relates to a prevalent finding that women score higher on many mental health problems. Different explanations are being put forward in the literature for this fact, among them biology, but also different experiences in life: discrimination, vulnerability to sexual harassment, and being overburdened while balancing work and family (for a short summary, see Kulkarni, 2017). Gender based violence and discrimination happens more often for women in high-level position and in male-dominated fields (e.g. Leaper & Starr, 2019, on STEM), which makes it very relevant for women in STEM careers.
Very few studies so far bring all these aspects together. Larger empirical studies of course add such aspects as controls, but so far not much research has attempted to consider the issue in all its complexity, also taking care of the potential endogeneities – women´s behavior being affected by structural aspects that disadvantage them. This, however seems important: If measures only focus on getting women into these fields, while the structural aspects disadvantaging them prevail, backlash could result, as can be seen in studies showing for example that women in STEM are more often victims of sexual harassment. Going beyond merely including more aspects – and their interactions – in regressions, but looking at mechanisms by complementing panel survey data with lab-in-the field experiments and qualitative methods with a large cross-cultural sample that is relatively homogeneous with respect to education and professional orientation (STEM) allows for substantial progress in the understanding of factors still inhibiting gender equality.

Inaugural workshop: 

     8^th and 9^th of October in Heidelberg (Germany), 2025

2^nd workshop:

     27^th to 29^th of November in Kyoto (Japan), 2025

Follow-up workshops:

     30^th of March and 1^st of April in Santiago (Chile), 2026

    Spring, 2026 in New Delhi (India), 2026

For inquiries please drop an email to wis-workshop@awi.uni-heidelberg.de