Pipeline vs. choice: the global gender gap in STEM applications

Isaac Ahimbisibwe, Adam Altjmed, Gregory Artemov, Andrés Barrios Fernández, Aspasia Bizopoulou, Martti Kaila, Jin-Tan Liu, Rigissa Megalokonomou, Jose Montalban, Christopher Neilson, Sebastian Otero, Jintao Sun and Xiaoyang Ye

CEP Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Performance, LSE

Abstract: Women account for only 35% of global STEM graduates, a share unchanged for a decade. We use administrative microdata from centralized university admissions in ten systems to deliver the first cross-national decomposition of the STEM gender gap into a pipeline gap (academic preparedness) and a choice gap (first-choice field conditional on eligibility). In deferred-acceptance platforms where eligibility is score-based, we isolate preferences from access. The pipeline gap varies widely, from -19 to +31 percentage points across education systems. By contrast, the choice gap is remarkably stable: high-scoring women are 25 percentage points less likely than men to rank STEM first.

Keywords: gender; inequality; STEM; gender gap; centralised application platforms (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-08-27
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