Evaluation Criteria and Women's Attainment of Elite STEM Education: Evidence from College Admission Records

Research on women's underrepresentation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields rarely addresses the roles of institutional gatekeepers and their screening criteria. Using full application records of the most prestigious university in Taiwan, we examine how the assessment criteria used by departments to determine admissions shape women's relative chance of entering elite STEM programs. Results from department fixed-effect models indicate that male-dominated STEM programs actually rate female applicants' written application materials and interviews higher. Female applicants are still less likely admitted to such programs than males because many STEM departments also use major-specific tests, which are not strictly curriculum based and impose great competitive pressure on selected students. Even the highest-achieving female students with a strong STEM interest perform worse than males in this type of tests, especially when the tests are given by male-dominated departments. Because of this gender performance gap, female students' chances of being admitted to elite STEM programs continue to be obstructed even as the college admission system became holistic and incorporated assessment criteria that could favor females.