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This paper focused on program choice in university, paying particular attention to mathematical and science ability and gender.  The relationship between these three factors may have an important connection to later socioeconomic status, since past work has shown that women choose fields (such as the humanities and social sciences) that generally pay less than fields (such as STEM) typically chosen by men (Finnie 2001; Gerber and Cheung 2008).  Mathematical and science ability in high school are connected to programs of study where mathematics and science are essential (such as STEM) (Trusty 2002; Trusty, Robinson, Plata and Ng 2000), thus, a goal of this paper was to connect the mathematical and science ability of young males and females with their choice of program in university.  Thoughts about program choice in university often occur while youth are still in high school.  Many factors go into the decision, such as influence from parents and friends, but one of the most important may be aptitude for a particular subject.

The analysis confirmed that young men more often choose to go on to STEM programs in university, while young women choose the social Sciences, arts and humanities or health-related fields.  This finding resonates with past Canadian (see Christie and Shannon 2001; McMullen et al. 2010) and American literature (see Bobbit-Zeher 2007; Geber and Cheung 2008).  Also expected and in line with past literature (see Trusty 2002; Trusty et al. 2000) was the finding that youth with strong mathematical and science skills more often enrol in programs that require and utilize these skills (e.g. STEM programs), and finally this analysis confirmed that there were distinct gender differences on mathematics scores in high school (males typically have higher scores), but not science test scores.  This finding was discovered across Canada (see Bussière et al. 2007) and a range of other countries (see Downey and Vogt Yuan 2005; Niederle and Vesterlund 2010; OECD 2012).

New results, which used a measure combining gender with levels of mathematical and science proficiency, showed two main findings.  First, males, regardless of mathematical or science ability, were more likely to go into STEM fields than young women of high mathematical ability. In other words, even males of lower mathematical ability go to STEM programs significantly more than females with considerably greater mathematical skills.  These differences remained in models with and without other important factors such as mathematics/science marks and self-assessed mathematical ability.  The finding for science ability was similar but weaker.  Second, females of high mathematical/science ability are more likely to go to STEM programs than their female counterparts of lower ability. However, the difference by ability as measured through PISA scores is explained through mathematics/science marks and self-assessed mathematical ability. That is, once mathematics/science marks and one’s perception of their abilities in mathematics are taken into account, mathematical/science ability no longer factors into females’ choice of STEM programs in university. For men, there was no real difference in the probability of entering a STEM program based on mathematical ability. Science ability did matter initially but disappeared in the presence of other important factors. More work is needed to fully explore which factor was most influential.

This paper, through the use of objective measures of mathematical and science ability in high school, was able to  illustrate that pure ability in subjects relevant for enrolling in STEM programs in university does not necessarily guarantee that the ‘best’ candidates enter these science and mathematics based programs.  For example, the most qualified young women in terms of mathematical and science ability were less likely to enter STEM programs than young men of lower ability. More work is clearly needed to better understand why those more capable and qualified are not choosing to enter fields of study connected with higher future earnings.  Some research suggests that young women may place more importance than do young men on family roles and responsibilities and personal relationships when choosing future occupations and as such may shy away from programs which they deem to run counter to those priorities (see Halpern et al. 2007; Lee 2002; OECD 2012; Turner and Bowen 1999; and Ware and Lee 1988). These issues were not analyzed in the current paper and remain an area for future research.