An Empirical Analysis of Gender Differences in STEM Occupations

This paper combines individual-level data from the “Internet Survey on Intergenerational Education and Training, and Cognitive and Non-cognitive Abilities” with a STEM occupation indicator constructed from Job-tag data to examine gender differences in STEM employment and the associated wage premium. Men have higher STEM occupation indicator values than women and are more likely to work in high-STEM occupations. Restricting the sample to college graduates, STEM majors exhibit higher STEM occupation indices than non-STEM majors for both genders; however, even among STEM graduates, men have higher indices than women. Regression results confirm that gender differences in entry into STEM occupations persist even among individuals who studied in STEM fields. We also find a positive STEM wage premium: the gender wage gap narrows at higher levels of STEM occupations and disappears within them, even though women are less likely to enter these occupations. These findings suggest that promoting access to higher-level STEM occupations may help reduce gender inequality.