People talk about research involving indicators such as "ability" and social factors. But have anyone asked the
boys and girls before college, or before starting a graduate degree why and how they make their choices? It seems to me that doing it on scale, like 1000 participants, in a given fixed country, would clear the picture.
In a way, they are voting with their choices, and all we need is a focus group.
"It should be noted, though, that the largest study to date included nearly 1000 children (9-14 years old) and found no effects.9 This latter study is of particular interest, because it included adolescents, whereas most other stereotype threat studies were carried out with university students. If stereotype threat discourages girls from pursuing math-intensive STEM coursework and careers, its effect should be evident in high-school. The fact that a large and well-designed study could not find any effect, in our opinion, suggests either the effect does not exist or it is unmeasurably small."
Yes, but I'm not interested in works where researchers are trying to validate a hypothesis like "stereotype threat discourages girls from pursuing math-intensive STEM coursework and careers". I'm asking about what these adolescents are actually saying. Raw answers, perhaps in two paragraphs, to a simple question of how they think they would choose.
edit: and then of course, such dataset should be anonymized and made public, so anyone could see what we are talking about.
In a way, they are voting with their choices, and all we need is a focus group.