In chemistry, lack of academic preparation and math ability have been offered as explanations as to why women seem to enroll, perform, and graduate at lower levels than men. In this paper, we explore the alternative possibility that the gender gap in chemistry instead originates from differential gender effects of academic factors on students’ motivation. Using a sample of approximately 670 students enrolled in a mid-sized university in the United States we conducted: (1) t-tests to understand incoming academic differences between freshman students by gender, (2) regression analysis to determine which academic and attitudinal factors predict success in General Chemistry 1, and (3) a mediation analysis to understand the underlying mechanisms of how academic performance affects students’ beliefs about their competency in chemistry, which in turn has an effect on chemistry achievement. We demonstrate the importance of math ability as a contributor to chemistry achievement, but further that ability differences in math are important because they affect students’ chemistry competency beliefs. Critically, this link between ability and competency beliefs is stronger for women than men. These results suggest that interventions geared towards improving women's chemistry competency beliefs could have an important influence in improving their achievement in the classroom, and in consequence reduce the gender gap in chemistry.

中文翻译：

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数学SAT对女性化学能力信念的影响†

在化学领域，缺乏学业准备和数学能力的解释是，为什么女性的录取，表演和毕业水平低于男性。在本文中，我们探讨了化学领域的性别差距反而是源自学术因素对学生动机的不同性别影响的另一种可能性。我们使用了大约670名在美国中型大学就读的学生的样本，我们进行了：（1）t测试以了解按性别划分的新生之间的学业差异；（2）回归分析，以确定哪些学术和态度因素预测了普通化学1的成功；以及（3）中介分析，以了解学业成绩如何影响学生的潜在机制他们对化学能力的信念，这反过来又会影响化学成就。我们证明了数学能力对化学成绩的贡献的重要性，但进一步地，数学中的能力差异很重要，因为它们会影响学生的化学能力信念。至关重要的是，女性的能力和能力信念之间的这种联系比男性更强。这些结果表明，干预措施旨在改善妇女的健康状况。