Progressive societies with the highest levels of gender equality have the lowest percentages of women graduating in STEM fields.
Wealthy OECD nations with strong social safety nets see a widening gap between men and women in technical degrees. Many activists assume that removing structural barriers will naturally lead to equal representation in science and engineering. The data suggests that cultural values in post-materialist societies actually encourage individuals to follow traditional gender paths. When economic survival is guaranteed, personal preferences based on ingrained cultural norms become more dominant. Equality of opportunity does not lead to equality of outcome in the most advanced economies.
Fading Frontiers: Unpacking Post-Materialist Societies and the Gender Gap in STEM Graduates Across OECD Nations.
SSRN · 6720858
Although women now surpass men in overall higher education attainment across OECD countries, they remain persistently underrepresented among STEM graduates. This contradiction is most pronounced in advanced, gender-progressive societies. This study investigates how postmaterialist cultural values contribute to this paradox and shape cross-national differences in STEM gender gaps. We leverage longitudinal data from 26 OECD countries (1998-2015) and employ generalized linear and negative binomial