What social, cultural, and educational factors have researchers proposed to explain why women are underrepresented in so

Researchers have proposed a mix of social, cultural, and educational explanations for why women are underrepresented in certain gaming spaces and in math-related fields.

Gaming communities

• Gaming grew out of a male-dominated subculture: early games were often created by men for a male audience, and the culture around them was built around male interests, including fantasy, science fiction, heroism, and violence [1][13][25][70][74][85][86]. Many "hardcore" games were designed and produced by men for men [86].
• Cultural stereotypes and social norms treat gaming, and technology more broadly, as a male domain [7][8][23][34][72]. Gender socialization theory says boys and girls are steered toward different interests from an early age, which can explain why gaming is seen as male [11][33]. The cultural perception that technology is "for males" can discourage women from getting involved in gaming and tech [84][87][89][90][91].
• A stereotypical gaming culture can keep women from being recognized as legitimate or skilled gamers, and it can shape women's own sense of being a "real" gamer [2][5][28]. Only 35% of women identify as gamers, compared with 51% of men, and research consistently shows higher gaming engagement among men [6][30][37].
• Female gamers often face sexism, harassment, gender-based violence, objectification, and misogynistic insults, especially in competitive or heavily male-skewed spaces [4][27][31][41][42][46][96][97][98]. Some researchers note that the gaming industry's failure to deal with misogyny has made gaming communities unwelcoming for women [42].
• Harassment and toxicity push women out: many women respond by not identifying as gamers, hiding their gender, avoiding online or competitive games, or stopping play altogether [7][9][10][29][32][36][45].
• Game content can also be a factor. Some research highlights the sexualization and objectification of female characters, and repeated exposure to these messages may lead women to internalize them [3][19][20][26][43]. Most game protagonists are male, which can make it harder for female players to identify with the games, and the absence of female characters can help preserve gaming as a "male domain" [18][75][76][93].
• The industry itself is part of the picture. Researchers point to hostile work environments, misogyny, and a "brogramming" culture in gaming companies [9][14][71][73]. Surveys show women hold a small share of gaming jobs: one industry survey found 22% of the workforce was female, and another source reports only 11% of game designers and 3% of programmers are women, with pay gaps compared with men [44][94]. The scarcity of women in the workforce likely affects how female characters are portrayed on screen [44].
• Other proposed factors include men being more attracted to competitive and action games because those games can strengthen masculine identity [8][12][35], women having less free time or fewer large blocks of free time [10][16][77], women preferring less time-intensive problem-solving games, and first-person shooters being less appealing to many female players [10][17][24][78][80]. Critics also debate whether women are less interested because games are designed in unappealing ways or because they are less interested in gaming generally [10][15][83]. Gender demographics have moved closer to parity on mobile platforms, though genre preferences remain [10][79].
• Researchers also observe that real-world gender dynamics and bias are reproduced inside online gaming communities, and that gender and sexual preference differences can be especially hard for players to handle [12][21][22][81][82].

Math-related fields

• Researchers attribute much of the math gender gap to differences in learning experiences rather than ability. These include persistent gender stereotypes, teacher expectations, classroom interactions, and girls having lower confidence in math [14][47][48]. Girls are increasingly represented among lower math performers and underrepresented among top performers [15][50]. Women also make up only 36% of STEM graduates, and math-intensive fields like physics, engineering, and computer science have about four men for every one woman [15][49][122].
• Educational and structural factors include socio-economic and structural conditions, differences in advanced course-taking, changes in graduation requirements and STEM opportunities such as those following Title IX, educational tracking, university pathways, and a school culture that prizes competition [16][53][102][106][108][111][115]. One source notes that in Switzerland, early educational tracking makes it hard to develop an interest in science later, so a girl interested in math or science must overcome stereotypes at every level [16][102].
• National culture and gender equality matter. Researchers find that the size of the math gender gap varies across countries and is smaller in nations with greater gender equality [17][110][112][113][114]. Measures of female equality and status also correlate with the proportion of girls scoring at the very top of math distributions [17][116]. Some researchers conclude that gender inequality, not greater male variability, is the primary reason fewer females are identified as excelling in mathematics at the highest levels [17][118]. They also argue that large cross-country and over-time differences cannot be primarily biological [17][119], and that women can do well when given a supportive sociocultural environment and real educational and career opportunities [17][120].
• Stereotype threat is a widely proposed social-psychological factor. This means that when women do math, they risk being judged by the negative stereotype that women are weaker at math, and this pressure can lower their performance [18][55][56][65]. Prolonged exposure to stereotype threat can lead some women to disidentify with math over time [18][60]. Studies show that gender gaps in math performance often disappear in nonthreatening test conditions, for example when a test simply says both genders tend to perform equally well [18][62][66][67][68]. This has led researchers to suggest classroom and policy strategies that reduce stereotype threat [18][64].
• Cultural gender bias can operate through teacher stereotypes, biased guidance counseling, a lack of female role models, society's image of women, and women excluding themselves from math [19][100][103][104][105][107][109][117]. For example, one woman in mathematics recalled a high school teacher who implied girls were less gifted in spatial thinking [19][101], and another said she wanted more female role models who had balanced an academic career with family life [19][109].
• Researchers also propose student-level factors, such as differences in confidence, women having a comparative advantage in English, women preferring majors with direct social impact, and differences in earlier career aspirations [21][123]. Math-intensive fields can also be more welcoming to men because they feed on masculine cultures and beliefs that success requires innate ability [21][124]. Earlier exposure to relevant courses and careers, confidence-building, and role-model interventions may help address the gap [21][125]. Additional barriers include segregation in education, less content coverage, and biases against girls of color [21][126].
• Researchers explicitly note that no single factor has been proven most important: their data did not determine which gender-related factors are most influential, and all likely contribute to some degree [20][121].

Overall, the evidence suggests that both gaming and math-related gaps are explained by a combination of social, cultural, and educational pressures, not by a single cause.