why don’t women do as well as men in chemistry finals at oxford ? jane mellanby department of...
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Why don’t women do as well as men in Chemistry Finals at
Oxford ?Jane mellanby
Department of Experimental Psychology
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Chemistry at Oxford
FHS Chemistry 1996-2013: % Firsts by gender (MChem only)
0.0%
10.0%
20.0%
30.0%
40.0%
50.0%
60.0%
Male 32.0% 25.8% 33.6% 29.6% 32.8% 44.5% 46.0% 37.3% 40.7% 38.8% 39.8% 46.5% 46.4% 45.1% 50.0% 45% 45% 52%
Female 19.6% 34.0% 22.2% 37.5% 36.0% 14.3% 23.6% 28.3% 31.4% 35.9% 31.1% 36.2% 41.3% 34.8% 30.0% 46% 29% 30%
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
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• If it is a problem, it is mainly an Oxford (and Cambridge) problem not specifically a Chemistry problem
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‘Gender gap’ 2012
26% of women and 32% of men obtained firsts
In any given FHS either men and women do the same or men do better than women
Few differences are actually statistically significant within an honour school
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‘Gender gap’ 2013
• Overall figures not yet available• Men did better in:
HistoryEnglish language and literatureM. PhysicsMedical sciencesBiochemistryEngineering scienceBiological Sciences
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Factors in the University structure
• Proportion of women professors and lecturers in a subject ?
• Proportion of women undergraduates in a subject ? Critical mass requirement ?
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Proportion of women lecturers and professors ?
• MPLS : 13.2% women
• English: 62.7% women
• But both show a ‘gender gap’ in Finals results
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Proportion of women undergraduates ?
• MPLS: ca. 29% women
• English: ca. 61% women
• Both show the ‘gender gap’ in firsts.
• So presence of a ‘critical mass’ of females reading a subject does not eliminate ‘gap’.
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The studies
• Study 1. 1996-7. Questionnaire before Finals. Finals class
and marks. (Mellanby, Martin and O’Doherty, 2000)
• Study 2. 2002-2008. Oxford Admissions Study. (Mellanby and Zimdars, 2011; Mellanby, Zimdars and Cortina-borja, 2013)
Questionnaire at admissions and before Finals.
First public exam and finals class and marks
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Strategy: Study 1
• Measure everything we can think of
• See which have sex differences
• See which predict Finals marks and class
• Only those which have sex difference AND predict Finals can explain gender gap
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Conclusions (Study 1)
Measure Sex difference Predicts ?Verbal ability NO YESNon-verbalability
YES NO
Academicefficacy
YES NO
Academicmotivation
NO NO
Risk-taking NO NOHours of work NO NO
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Conclusions (Study 1): Emotional state
Measure Sex difference Predicts ?Depression YES NOAnxiety YES NOExam stress YES NOLoneliness YES NOSelf-esteem YES NOHappiness YES NO
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The only factor in Study 1...
That had BOTH a sex difference
AND predicted degree class was
expectation of a first:
Males expected to do better, and their expectation correlated with their actual results.
The correlation between actual and expected result for females was much lower than for males
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Strategy: Study 2
• Measures taken at admissions and before finals
• Looked at changes over time
• Included First Public Exam (FPE) results
• Statistical modelling of probability of getting a first
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Sex differences in Study 2
At admissions Before Finals• Self-esteem: M>F M>F• Depression: F>M not measured• Trait anxiety: F>M F>M• Happiness: M>F M>F• Expectation M>F M>F (no correlation
of a first with score at admissions)
Hours of revision F>M
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Results: What predicts getting a first?
(Logistic regression for probability of getting a first)• Being male (+)• Verbal IQ (+; men only) • Expectation of a first (+; both)• Trait anxiety (+; women only)• FPE results (+; both)• Hours of revision (+; men only)• Deep learning approach(+; men only)• General self-esteem (negative; both)
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High trait anxiety in women predicts first class degree
(Mellanby and Zimdars, 2010)
0 20 40 60 80 100
0.00
00.
010
0.02
0
female & 1st
acc4b$anxiousEnd[b2 & b3]
0 20 40 60 80 100
0.00
00.
010
0.02
0
male & 1st
acc4b$anxiousEnd[!b2 & b3]
0 20 40 60 80 100
0.00
00.
010
0.02
0
female & not 1st
acc4b$anxiousEnd[b2 & !b3]
0 20 40 60 80 100
0.00
00.
010
0.02
0
male & not 1st
acc4b$anxiousEnd[!b2 & !b3]
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Performance decile in finals: comparison between males and females (Mellanby, Zimdars and Cortina)
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
1.2
1.4
Finals decile
dens
ity e
stim
ate
FemaleMale
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Effect of performance in prelims/mods and expectation of a first on finals performance
40 50 60 70 80 90 100
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
prelims mark
prob
abili
ty o
f ge
ttin
g a
1st
female exp 1stfemale exp 2.1
male exp 1stmale exp 2.1
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Interaction of factors that predict getting a first
• Expectation of a first predicts it
• Males have higher expectation
• For a given mark in FPE males had a higher expectation of getting a first.
• Expectation plus FPE accounts STATISTICALLY for the ‘gender gap’
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• Why is the better performance by men at Oxford (and Cambridge) not seen at most other universities ? What is different about Oxford and Cambridge ?
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What is different about Oxford and Cambridge ?
• Very high previous achievement of undergraduates
• Internationally acknowledged ‘top’ universities• Tutorials• Exams mainly timed unseen papers not
coursework-based• Publicity about the gender gap
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• What sort of a psychological construct is this ‘expectation of getting a first’ ?
• We can equate it with ‘academic self-concept’
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Academic self-concept versus general self-esteem
• These are separable
• Academic self-concept is context-specific
• It is related to academic achievement
• General self-esteem has social, emotional and physical aspects.
• It is related to well-being(Shavelson, 1982; Hansford and Hattie, 1982; Rosenberg et al, 1995)
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• So why should academic self-concept be lower in women at Oxford ?
• What happens to them during their time at Oxford ?
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Change during time at Oxford
Change over 3 years
-0.4
-0.3
-0.2
-0.1
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
self esteem happiness anxiety
psychological measure
chan
ge
male
female
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Hypotheses re why females’ academic self-concept is lower
• Background sex differences in academic expectations and self-belief (Correll, 2004)
• Stereotype threat (student newspaper effect; prizes/awards for FPE success) ?(Steele, 1997)
• Big fish little pond/little fish big pond ? (Marsh, Kong and
Hau, 2000)
• Differential effect of negative feedback in tutorials (Jackson, 2003)
• Male-oriented environment.
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Effect of lowered academic self-concept before Finals
• “ I am stupid therefore I need to ‘learn’ more”
• Work longer hours than men
• Inefficient revision strategy. Learning, learning, learning
• Lowered exploitation of deep learning approach.
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Intelligence ?
• The males are not more ‘intelligent’
• But their academic outcome is related to their verbal IQ while women’s is not
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So What can or should be done?
• Emphasize that Oxford women are not stupider than Oxford men. This may help to remove the stereotype threat.
• We need to be aware of the detrimental effect of negative criticism in women on academic self-concept
• Female attitude to revision strategy: this may improve if academic self-concept is raised.
• And we need to keep on monitoring the gender gap
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Effect of expectation of a first and of self-esteem on Finals performance
5 10 15 20
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
prob
abili
ty o
f get
ting
a 1s
t
self esteem at the end
F expect 1st F expect 2.1 M expect 1st M expect 2.1