Reinforcing the STEM pipeline in vocational-technical high schools: The effect of female teachers

Abstract

Although secondary Vocational-Technical Education (VTE) is highly prevalent in low-income settings in the developing world, this sector remains understudied in the Economics of Education literature. Situated in the Chilean context, this study examines the effect of exposure to a female VTE teacher on STEM pipeline persistence from secondary to post-secondary level. We find that having at least one female teacher in secondary STEM-VTE programs increases overall enrollment in STEM higher education programs by 2.1 percentage points, primarily driven by women choosing postsecondary VTE diplomas in STEM fields. The effect of female VTE teachers in enrollment in these diplomas reaches 4.0 percentage points, equivalent to an 18% reduction in the observed gender gap. We argue that female VTE teachers, acting as role models, have the potential to mitigate the traditional barriers that young women encounter to persist in the STEM pipeline, thereby contributing to closing the STEM gender gap.