Family Structure, Gender, and Wages in STEM Work

Drawing upon work effort and gendered organizations perspectives and using data from the Current Population Survey, we examine how family structure types (i.e., combinations of marital and parental statuses) shape within- and between-gender variation in the earnings of highlyeducated men and women working in STEM and non-STEM occupations. We find that STEM and non-STEM women earn premia for marriage and for motherhood if they are married, with higher family-related premia for STEM women. Analysis of married men and women by specific STEM category reveals the largest parenthood premium is for women in engineering. Yet, STEM men and non-STEM men generally earn more than their counterpart women, with the largest between-gender wage difference for married parents in non-STEM occupations. Taken together, these findings provide a mixed picture of movement towards gender equality in work organizations.

The Gender Gap in Engineering Education During The COVID-19 Lockdown: A Study Case

Higher education in Spain, especially in Madrid, was suddenly and unex-pectedly shut down on March 9th 2020 because of the beginning of the COVID-19 first wave emergency. In engineering education, where practical laboratories are a relevant part of the educational process, professors followed different approaches (sometimes concurrently), designed after only three or five days of discussions. Although, globally, the obtained results are ac-ceptable considering the situation, after informally analyzing the data and observing the post-lockdown students’ profile, it emerges clearly that some collectives have suffered a higher impact than other. The objective of this work is to analyze if the performance of women in engineering courses, spe-cifically in computer engineering, is different from male students. The study case is carried out at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, particularly, in the computer engineering degree. Furthermore, if a statistically relevant differ-ence is discovered, the final causes of this worrying situation will be studied. Official academic results were analyzed. Besides, more than one hundred surveys among students were developed. Results clearly show a deterioration in all indicators for all collectives and students, comparing the performance during the lockdown and the performance of previous years. However, this impact is not homogenous, and results also show how there is, actually, a gender gap placing women in engineering education during the lockdown (an after) in a disadvantaged situation