Gender Differences In Career Aspirations ——Analysis Based On Culture On Gender Equality

The problem of women in science,technology,engineering,and mathematics（STEM）,where the proportion of women is much lower than that of men,is of particular concern.As early as adolescence,there were obvious differences between boys and girls in their aspirations for STEM careers.From the perspective of the culture on gender equality,this paper empirically analyzes how culture affects gender differences in career aspirations.Using data from the Programme for International Student Assessment（PISA）2003,2006,2009,2012,2015,and 2018,based on the idea of "epidemiological analysis",the sample was limited to second-generation immigrants who were born and lived in the host country participating in the PISA project,but whose father and mother were born in another country,in order to separate cultural and other environmental factors as much as possible and eliminate the influence of reverse causality.It is possible to reduce the deviation of the estimation result due to the endogenous problem.Furthermore,three paths of vocational values,cognitive ability,and non-cognitive ability were constructed to test the influence mechanism of culture on gender differences in career aspirations.The research found that:（1）The higher the degree of gender equality in the ancestor country,the greater the gender difference in STEM career aspirations of second-generation immigrants.For each standard deviation increase in gender equality in the mother’s ancestor country,the gender difference in STEM career aspirations for secondgeneration immigrants widened by 2.58 percentage points.（2）When the ancestor country is a non-OECD,non-developed,non-high-income country,with the improvement of gender equality in the ancestor country,the gender difference in STEM career aspirations of second-generation immigrants is greater.This phenomenon was not found in the second-generation immigrant samples whose ancestor country is OECD,developed,and high-income country.（3）Further study whether there is a difference in the influence of fathers and mothers on second-generation immigrants.It is found that fathers come from the ancestor country with higher gender equality,and the gender difference in STEM career aspirations of secondgeneration immigrants has widened,but it is slightly smaller than the mother’s influence on secondgeneration immigrants.（4）Construct the influence path of “gender equality culture→professional values,cognitive ability,non-cognitive ability→professional aspirations”.The results of the mechanism analysis show that from the ancestor country with higher gender equality,the second-generation immigrants have wider gender differences in vocational values（social status）,narrower gender differences in mathematics and science scores,wider gender differences in reading scores,and wider gender differences in noncognitive abilities（fear of failure）.