Gender Differences in Academic Achievements and Self-esteem of STEM Fields Students

Recently, the topic of gender inequality in STEM sciences has become increasingly popular. It is connected with the problems of achieving gender parity in specialized educational institutions and at the labor market of high-tech industries. At the moment, this topic is not conceived enough in the Russian context. It is interesting to look at the factors that are related to gender disbalance in the STEM field. Its first manifestations can be observed even in the process of receiving school education by comparing the gender gap in academic performance in STEM subjects and examining the factors that may be related with students` performance and academic self-esteem. The purpose of the work is to understand whether the socio-economic context of the class and the settlement determine the differences in the performance and motivation of boys and girls in STEM subjects. The hypothesis is that, despite the equality of cognitive abilities, boys compared with girls feel more confident in mathematics, which is reflected in their academic self-esteem and educational achievements. At the same time, an increase in the achievement gap in STEM subjects in favor of boys in the context of higher socio-economic conditions is expected. These include the socio-professional level of parents, SES of class and SES of the settlement in which the school is located. A secondary analysis of the databases by Laboratory of Sociology in Education and Science was conducted. The sample included 6-9 grades students of schools in the Kaluga region. The results show 5 single-level and 3 two-level regressions. The hypothesis of the relationship of the estimates with the settings was confirmed. The context effects of the SES of the class and the settlement were found for the gender gap in academic self-esteem, but not for the gender gap in academic achievements.