Is it a Matter of Skills? High School Choices and the Gender Gap in STEM

This paper examines whether the gender gap in skills, favoring boys in mathematics and girls in language, contributes to the gender gap in STEM choices in high school. While previous research has linked skills to educational choices, it finds little evidence that these explain the gender gap in university field of study. However, the transition to upper secondary school – especially in tracked systems – may involve different dynamics, with school performance playing a more important role. We analyze this transition in Italy, where students choose between different school types at 14. This choice is crucial for students who do not attend university and provides insights into gender segregation in the labor market at lower socio-economic levels. We show that skills influence educational choices, but among children of less educated parents do not explain the gender gap. However, ability partially mediates the gender gap among students of more advantaged backgrounds.