Girls and science in France

Christelle Garrouste

Chapter 41 in Investigaciones de Economía de la Educación, 2016, vol. 11, pp 733-752 from Asociación de Economía de la Educación

Abstract: Despite an increasing number of girls taking science subjects in high school, many countries suffer a problem of attraction and retention of girls in science majors in college, combined with a problem of transition to the labour market. This paper aims at testing the validity of the assumption of such a progressive "leaking pipeline" effect on the French case. Using the French Labour Force Survey of 2011, we find that, after controlling for the influence of the family background, the French gender gap in science is not due to a progressive leak. Instead, it is mainly due to a filter at the entrance level into the science pipeline. No major gender difference is identified during the course of studies at university nor during the transition to the labour market. This result points at a problem of attractiveness of science majors for girls at the school level. We find that the scientific nature of the profession of the mother plays a more significant role in the choice of her children’s major and occupation than that of the father, which confirms the importance of including mother’s occupation in analyses of children’s choices. Hence, as the number of scientific women will increase, the number of pupils of both genders choosing science subjects and majors will also increase.

Keywords: Gender; Science; Employability. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I20 J16 J24 J62 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
ISBN: 978-84-945958-6-8
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