A recent study may provide insight into why college women are more likely than men to leave science, technology, engineering, and mathematic (STEM) majors, and what could be done to solve this problem.
Researchers discovered that first-year calculus class leads many students—but particularly women—to drop out of STEM. Why are women more likely to make an exit? As Education Week reports, women on average start and end their first college calculus course with less confidence in their math skills compared to similarly-skilled male peers. The study suggests that boosting women’s confidence and encouraging them to stick with STEM in spite of Calculus 1 could dramatically increase the number of female STEM majors and women in these lucrative fields.