It's all about maths! Skill requirements and the gender gap in occupational choice

Although occupational choice research clearly shows the under-representation of women in mathematics- and science-related fields (STEM), the existing research mostly focuses on i) high-ability (university) students (rather than a wider spectrum of students) and ii) the choice between STEM or non-STEM fields (not specifically between mathematics and science). This study, in turn, investigates the gender gap in occupational choice by using data on the career choices of a wide spectrum of young Swiss students, who choose their work apprenticeships at age 15/16. Specifically, this study investigates whether students' gender is associated with differences in occupational requirements (mathematics, science, language) conditional on individual occupation preferences, skills, personality traits and socio-economic characteristics. The novel dataset links a representative student survey, administrative data on education trajectories and data on occupational skill requirements. While the results suggest only a very small gender gap in favour of men in occupations with higher science requirements (higher "science intensity"), the results suggest a statistically and economically significant gender gap in favour of men in occupations with higher mathematics requirements (higher "mathematics intensity") equivalent to a 12% wage reduction for women over the working life. The results suggest that the mathematics intensity of an occupation is associated with gender segregation both within STEM and non-STEM occupations.