Girls and boys in science.

Summary Although women now have more degrees on average than men in France, as in most developed countries, they remain largely underrepresented in scientific and technical fields and professions, particularly those related to mathematics, physics or computer science. The differences in skills between girls and boys in scientific subjects are small and can only explain a small part of these differences in orientation. Self-confidence, social norms and gender stereotypes are, however, increasingly cited as important explanatory factors. Based on a large-scale questionnaire survey of 8,500 high school students in the Ile-de-France region, this study aims to objectivize the existence of these factors and to link them to career choices. First, it documents the extent of the differences between girls and boys in terms of declared taste for science and self-confidence in scientific subjects. It then reveals that the prevalence of stereotypes concerning scientific professions and the place of women within these professions is far from negligible in the school environment. However, when we relate students' study choices to their level in mathematics and French, their declared taste for science, their self-confidence, and their stereotypical representations, we find that the level in mathematics and stereotypes only manage to explain a very small part of the differences in the orientation of girls and boys towards scientific fields. Conversely, declared taste for science and self-confidence in mathematics, whatever the indicator used to measure it, explain a significant part of the gender differences in orientation towards science.