[MattW]

Washington Post



This chart shows the percentage of male and female students who received a given grade in introductory economics course who then later majored in economics. As you can see men were barely affected at all by the grade in their intro course while women consistently chose not to pursue economics as their intro grade declined.

Not really news here, men are more interested in specific subjects and grades don't persuade or dissuade them very much from their interests/goals. Women are more interested in succeeding within the whole school system, meaning the grades matter more and the subject matters less.

[MikeCF]

To a woman, a grade is a statement of judgment or social approval.

Women hate being judged critically. How often do we hear women say, "Don't judge me!"

Women seek out validation. That's why they pursue easier majors and careers where there isn't an objective reality (such as engineering).

[UrbanNerd]

I got a C+ in Calculus-1.
I got a C+ in my first Computer Science course.

and....

I have a B.S. in Applied Math/Computer Science.
I have a M.S. in Systems Engineering.
I have 25 years experience in software engineering and systems engineering.

[Mike5055]

I was an Economics major (joint finance) and never really thought about my class demographic as I progressed through my studies. Definitely was the case with my fellow economic grads. A few of the guys had fairly poor grades in their lower level classes, but none of the girls did. They all dropped along the way when they did poorly.

Interesting to think about.

[Tytalus]

This is interesting but it does NOT look at the whole picture even remotely. I have read of a study being replicated in Australia, Canada and the USA on high school kids and how they perceive their performance.

It basically boils down to this:

Suppose someone has a grade 12 mark spread like this:

Biology 82%
Chemistry 75%

English 98%
Fine Art 90%

Geography 85%
History 92%

Math 80%
Physics 75%

Now, suppose the students least favourite subject is English (despite the highest mark) and Math is their favourite.

A guy will say, "Gee, 80% in Principles of Math 12 isn't bad at all, I'm certainly not like those flaming retards who failed Math Essentials 12. It's the best of my science marks, so clearly I should major in Math in university. And I'll blow those stupid arts electives out of the water without trying. I'll probably have to step up my game for my required science courses in first year."

A girl will say, "Math and science are some of my worst marks. Even though I like them more, clearly I'm better at the arts. But I hate english, so I'll major in geography or psychology."

In essence, guys will look at the mark on its own, whereas girls will look at their marks as a whole and rank them from best to worst. Even if their "worst" mark is good, their likelihood of pursuing an education in that subject is practically zero without parental/mentor intervention.

[The Beast1]

I always really enjoyed econ, math, and especially science classes. The irony is, they were my worst subjects. I had to avoid them because if I wanted to take those classes, I would end up with a super shitty GPA which would subsequently bar me from grad schools.

GPAs don't adequately reflect challenging subject matter.