Brooke’s thesis discusses the issue of gender disparities within STEM education. Her work explores the notion that the gender gap in STEM has its origins in self-beliefs and task values of young people. However, how much of the STEM gender gap can be explained by these Expectancy Value Theory constructs? Moreover, to what degree do social and cultural contexts moderate the size of gender gaps in self-beliefs and attitudes towards math and science? Brooke’s thesis explores these questions through meta-analytic, longitudinal and interview data of young women and men. Results for Study 1 show that gender differences in expectancy value constructs are domain specific, and that there are significant moderation effects across social class, gender equality, and gender segregation in university enrolments. Study 2 explores the replicability of meta-analysis results from Study 1, and extends upon these results through an analysis of a large nationally representative database that includes ethnicity, geography, and educational attainment. Results from Study 3 show that while EVT can account for some of the gender disparity in STEM enrolment, there is still a very large amount of difference that remains unexplained by current theory. Furthermore, results indicate that even when comparing male and female students of equal ability and attitudes, females still are significantly disadvantaged in terms of STEM university enrolment. A content analysis in Study 4 explores whether open-ended interview data can add to current theory. Results point the role of dimensional comparison as critical to educational choices, but again, there were no major themes that arose that significantly deviate from current theory.

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