We found that when it came to pursuing male-dominated fields like computer science and engineering, gender gaps were greater when students chose to follow their passions, with men disproportionately choosing those fields. We also found that gender gaps in selecting potential future occupations were smaller when we asked people of both genders to prioritize nurturing and emotionally supporting other people. That is, if you encourage women and men to follow their passions in selecting a major or career, there is a big gender gap. If you encourage them to make money, there is less of a gender gap, with more women skewing toward traditionally masculine fields. Are we suggesting that women shouldn’t pursue their passions and should enter fields that they don’t really care about just to close gender gaps?

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