Gender differences in individual variation in academic grades fail to fit expected patterns for STEM

O’Dea, R. E.; Lagisz, M.; Jennions, M. D.; Nakagawa, S.

doi:10.1038/s41467-018-06292-0

Cited by 253Career Development and DiversityEducation, Achievement, and GiftednessGender and Technology in Education

Gender differences in individual variation in academic grades fail to fit expected patterns for STEM

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O’Dea, R. E., Lagisz, M., Jennions, M. D., Nakagawa, S.·2018·Nature Communications

DOI 10.1038/s41467-018-06292-0PMC PMC6156605

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Abstract

Fewer women than men pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), despite girls outperforming boys at school in the relevant subjects. According to the 'variability hypothesis', this over-representation of males is driven by gender differences in variance; greater male variability leads to greater numbers of men who exceed the performance threshold. Here, we use recent meta-analytic advances to compare gender differences in academic grades from over 1.6 million students. In line with previous studies we find strong evidence for lower variation among girls than boys, and of higher average grades for girls. However, the gender differences in both mean and variance of grades are smaller in STEM than non-STEM subjects, suggesting that greater variability is insufficient to explain male over-representation in STEM. Simulations of these differences suggest the top 10% of a class contains equal numbers of girls and boys in STEM, but more girls in non-STEM subjects.

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There is no significant influence of gender on academic performance.
“This finding corroborates broader trends in the literature, which showed no significant influence of gender on academic performance [45,46].”
From Relationships Between Physical Activity, Sleep, Psychological Well-Being, and Academic Performance Among Native American College Students (2026) · cites this paper as [46]
The Results (Moderating effects of subject type: STEM versus non-STEM; page unavailable) report a statistically significant advantage for girls in mean grades in non-STEM subjects and a smaller advantage in STEM subjects. Although the Discussion describes girls’ and boys’ achievements as practically similar, it also states that average female grades were higher. The paper therefore does not support the claim of no significant gender influence on academic performance. (LLM, conf=0.90)
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[14]OECD. STEM workers receive a significant earnings premium over other workers with the same level of education: private wage and salary, workers aged 25 and over. 10.1787/eco_surveys-usa-2012-graph47-en (2012). · DOI
[52]O’Dea, R. E., Lagisz, M., Jennions, M. D. & Nakagawa, S. Data for “Gender differences in individual variation in academic grades fail to fit expected patterns for STEM”. Open Science Framework https://osf.io/efm9t (2018). PMC6156605 30254267
[53]O’Dea, R. E., Lagisz, M., Jennions, M. D. & Nakagawa, S. Code for “Gender differences in individual variation in academic grades fail to fit expected patterns for STEM”. Open Science Framework https://osf.io/q68ae (2018). PMC6156605 30254267

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Data for "Gender differences in individual variation in academic grades fail to fit expected patterns for STEM"Preprint
Jennions, M. D., O’Dea, R. E., Nakagawa, S., & Lagisz, M. (2018) · OSF Preprints (OSF Preprints) · doi:10.17605/osf.io/efm9t
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Authors: O’Dea, R. E., Lagisz, M., Jennions, M. D., & Nakagawa, S.
Affiliations: Australian National University (AU)
UNSW Sydney (AU)
Corresponding author: O’Dea, R. E.
Nakagawa, S.
ORCID: O’Dea, R. E.
Lagisz, M.
Jennions, M. D.
Nakagawa, S.
Venue: Nature Communications
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published: 2018-09-25
Volume: 9
Issue: 1
Pages: 3777-3777
ISSN: 2041-1723 (ISSN-L)
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-06292-0
PMC: PMC6156605
OpenAlex: W2890559011
Cited by: 253
References: 54
Citations by year: 2026: 16 · 2025: 23 · 2024: 25 · 2023: 22 · 2022: 31 · 2021: 37 · 2020: 78 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 1 · 2015: 1
FWCI: 66.07
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: gold
doi.org
Licence: cc-by
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 (tdm)
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 (vor)
Locations: Nature Communications (publishedVersion, cc-by)
Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
PubMed (publishedVersion)
UNSWorks (University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
ANU Open Research (Australian National University) (submittedVersion)
Topics: Social Sciences › Safety Research › Career Development and Diversity
Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Education, Achievement, and Giftedness
Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender and Technology in Education
Keywords: gender differences, student grades, individual differences, STEM careers, gender gap in science, variance, mean and variance, high-achieving students, girls' academic performance
MeSH terms: Academic Performance, Adolescent, Adult, Child, Engineering, Female, Humans, Male, Mathematics, Motivation, Sex Factors, Students, Technology, Models, Statistical, Sex Distribution, Young Adult, Datasets as Topic

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Gender differences in individual variation in academic grades fail to fit expected patterns for STEM

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