Why don’t more girls choose to pursue a science career?

Abstract

Boys outperform girls in science in 22 PISA-participating countries, and girls outperform boys in 19. However, boys have a relative strength in science in 65 out of the 67 participating countries, meaning that they score higher in science than their average performance across all three main PISA subjects. Boys show greater confidence when learning science (in 39 countries) and greater interest in broad science topics (in 51 countries) than girls do. The differences in favour of boys in relative academic strength, in confidence and interest in science are associated with lower graduation rates among women in STEM fields.