Abstract

In Italy, women now surpass men in university enrollment, yet they remain highly underrepresented in STEM fields. Such imbalance contributes to widen ing the gender pay and employment gap. Indeed, national and international student assessment programs show a consistent gender gap in math performance, with girls scoring significantly lower than their male peers, and experiencing a more troubled relationship with STEM subjects and math in particular. The article summarizes the main psychological and cultural factors that can hamper girls’ math performance, opposed to biological explanations introduced in the past. Stereotype threat theory comes at hand to link in a single construct both societal and psychological pressures at play, to better understand how prejudices reinforce gender disparities in STEMs achievements. Addressing this issue could help promote greater equity both in academia and professional fields.