A common stereotype is that college women avoid taking courses in science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) disciplines. And also, it is commonly believed that women who take STEM courses in college don’t do well in them and therefore decide to pursue majors in other fields.
But new data from the U.S. Department of Education shows that 89.7 percent of both men and women take at least some STEM courses during their college years. And the average grade point average for women who take these STEM courses in 2.7. For men, the average GPA in courses in STEM disciplines is 2.5.
But the news is not all encouraging. Men, on average, take more classes in STEM disciplines than women and men, on average, earn more credits in STEM fields than women.
This is very interesting and I’d like to read more. What year was the U.S. Department of Education study which is cited published? Is there more to this article? Thank you for this valuable information.
The Department of Education study containing this data can be downloaded here: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2013151