Are University Admissions Academically Fair?

Bhattacharya, Debopam; Kanaya, Shin; Stevens, Margaret

doi:10.2139/ssrn.2082976

Cited by 11 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 43 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“… At some elite universities, the academic threshold for admission is higher for men than for women. This is true, for instance, at Oxford University in the UK (Bhattacharya et al, 2017) and Harvard University in the US (Arcidiacono et al, 2019, see Table D5).…”

Section: Challenges To the Discrimination Explanation For Stem Gendermentioning

confidence: 92%

Men, Women, and STEM: Why the Differences and What Should Be Done?

Stewart‐Williams¹,

Halsey²

2018

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

It is a well-known and widely lamented fact that men outnumber women in a number of fields in STEM, including physics, mathematics, and computer science. The most commonly discussed explanations for the gender gaps are discrimination and socialization, and the most common policy prescriptions are targeted at those ostensible causes. However, a great deal of evidence in the behavioral sciences suggests that discrimination and socialization are only part of the story. The purpose of this paper is to highlight other aspects of the story: aspects that are commonly overlooked or downplayed. More precisely, the paper has two main aims. The first is to examine the evidence that factors other than workplace discrimination make a significant contribution to the gender gaps in STEM. These factors include relatively large average sex differences in career and lifestyle preferences, and relatively small average differences in cognitive aptitudessome favoring males, others favoring femaleswhich are associated with progressively larger differences the further above the average one looks. The second aim is to evaluate the evidence suggesting that these sex differences are not purely a product of social factors but also have a substantial biological (or "innate") component. A more complete picture of the many causes of the unequal sex ratios in STEM may productively inform policy debates, and is likely to improve women's situation across the STEM fields. Men, Women, and ScienceWhy the Differences and What Should Be Done?Never has the issue of gender disparities been as widely discussed, or as bitterly contested, as it has been in recent years. From the Oscars to the political podium, from TV shows to the workplace, disparities are identified and debate inevitably ensues. In the occupational realm, one of the primary focuses of this debate has been the differential representation of men and women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math). 1 This was epitomized by the infamous "Google memo," in which then-Google employee James Damore (2017) questioned the extent to which observed gender disparities in STEM are a product of workplace discrimination. The memo, and Damore's subsequent dismissal from Google, provoked a great deal of discussion and debate about the causes of STEM disparities and the origins of human sex differences. Unfortunately, much of this debate was decidedly inaccurate in its presentation of the research on the topic. A great deal was said about bias and discrimination, but relatively little about other factors contributing to STEM gender gaps (e.g., Chachra, 2017). Furthermore, to the extent that other factors were mentionedfactors such as average sex differences in academic interests these were typically attributed to socialization, rather than to biology or to a 1 Strictly speaking, the issue is not STEM per se, but rather STEM fields that focus on the non-living world, or that have a strong spatial or mathematical component. According to Ceci et al. (2014), the STEM fields should be divided into GE...

show abstract

Section: Challenges To the Discrimination Explanation For Stem Gendermentioning

confidence: 92%

Men, Women, and STEM: Why the Differences and What Should Be Done?

Stewart‐Williams¹,

Halsey²

2018

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…At some elite universities, the academic threshold for admission is higher for men than for women. This is true, for instance, at Oxford University in the UK (Bhattacharya et al., 2017) and Harvard University in the US (Arcidiacono et al., 2019, Table D5). STEM professors are more receptive to meeting requests from female students than male students (C. Young et al., 2019).…”

Section: Bias and Discrimination In The Workplacementioning

confidence: 93%

Men, women and STEM: Why the differences and what should be done?

Stewart‐Williams

Halsey

2021

Eur J Pers

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

It is a well-known and widely lamented fact that men outnumber women in a number of fields in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths). The most commonly discussed explanations for the gender gaps are discrimination and socialization, and the most common policy prescriptions target those ostensible causes. However, a great deal of evidence in the behavioural sciences suggests that discrimination and socialization are only part of the story. The purpose of this paper is to highlight other aspects of the story: aspects that are commonly overlooked or downplayed. More precisely, the paper has two main aims. The first is to examine the evidence that factors other than workplace discrimination contribute to the gender gaps in STEM. These include relatively large average sex differences in career and lifestyle preferences, and relatively small average differences in cognitive aptitudes – some favouring males, others favouring females – which are associated with progressively larger differences the further above the average one looks. The second aim is to examine the evidence suggesting that these sex differences are not purely a product of social factors but also have a substantial biological (i.e. inherited) component. A more complete picture of the causes of the unequal sex ratios in STEM may productively inform policy discussions.

show abstract

“…Most UK applicants sit A‐levels on three subjects at age 18 at the end of the 2‐year post‐compulsory education. There are different examination boards, but the evaluation system is centrally coordinated and therefore average A‐level scores are considered to be directly comparable across institutions (see Bhattacharya, Kanaya, and Stevens , among others). Admissions are rarely based on subjective assessments of student motivation or performance at interview (Jerrim, Vignoles, and Finnie ), and the majority of higher education institutions use grades in A‐level qualifications as the main criteria for university entry, the other options being the Scottish Certificate of Higher Education and foreign qualifications (Walker and Zhu ).…”

Section: Institutional Background: Shocks To College Competition At Ementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Second, by offering an explanation to the diverging patterns in time investments for children and parents from different educational backgrounds across regions and over time in the United Kingdom, we complement the inequality literature by identifying one possible channel through which the intergenerational transmission of human capital takes place (see Black and Devereaux ; Fiorini and Keane ; Richey and Rosburg ). Third, we add to the literature on inequality in university access by showing for the first time unique evidence on increased competition for slots at elite universities in the United Kingdom after the introduction of changes in the educational system (Bhattacharya, Kanaya, and Stevens ; Bound, Hershbein, and Long ; Dillon and Smith ; Hoxby ; Jerrim, Vignoles, and Finnie ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Competition for University Places and Parental Time Investments: Evidence From the United Kingdom

Borra

Sevilla

2019

Economic Inquiry

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Across the industrialized world college‐educated parents invest more time in their children relative to noncollege‐educated parents. Yet, the reason for the education gradient in parental time investments is not well understood. Using 24‐hour diary surveys since the 1970s we document an inverse U‐shape in the education gradient in the United Kingdom. Theories unfolding gradually and monotonically cannot easily explain this pattern. Using an exogenous increase in the number of students going on to university in the 1980s, we show that an alternative explanation based on competition for university places can explain the temporal and spatial variation in the education gradient. (JEL J13, J24)

show abstract

Are University Admissions Academically Fair?

Cited by 11 publications

References 43 publications

Men, Women, and STEM: Why the Differences and What Should Be Done?

Men, Women, and STEM: Why the Differences and What Should Be Done?

Men, women and STEM: Why the differences and what should be done?

Competition for University Places and Parental Time Investments: Evidence From the United Kingdom

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About