Why don’t women do as well as men in Chemistry Finals at Oxford ? Jane mellanby Department of Experimental Psychology

Chemistry at Oxford

If it is a problem, it is mainly an Oxford (and Cambridge) problem not specifically a Chemistry problem

‘Gender gap’ % 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

‘Gender gap’ 2013 Overall figures not yet available Men did better in: History English language and literature M. Physics Medical sciences Biochemistry Engineering science Biological Sciences

Factors in the University structure Proportion of women professors and lecturers in a subject ? Proportion of women undergraduates in a subject ? Critical mass requirement ?

Proportion of women lecturers and professors ? MPLS : 13.2% women English: 62.7% women But both show a ‘gender gap’ in Finals results

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’.

The studies Study Questionnaire before Finals. Finals class and marks. (Mellanby, Martin and O’Doherty, 2000) Study 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

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

Conclusions (Study 1)

Conclusions (Study 1): Emotional state

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

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

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

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)

High trait anxiety in women predicts first class degree (Mellanby and Zimdars, 2010)

Performance decile in finals: comparison between males and females (Mellanby, Zimdars and Cortina)

Effect of performance in prelims/mods and expectation of a first on finals performance

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’

Why is the better performance by men at Oxford (and Cambridge) not seen at most other universities ? What is different about Oxford and Cambridge ?

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

What sort of a psychological construct is this ‘expectation of getting a first’ ? We can equate it with ‘academic self- concept’

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)

So why should academic self-concept be lower in women at Oxford ? What happens to them during their time at Oxford ?

Change during time at Oxford

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.

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.

Intelligence ? The males are not more ‘intelligent’ But their academic outcome is related to their verbal IQ while women’s is not

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

Effect of expectation of a first and of self- esteem on Finals performance