STEM jobs are disproportionately held by men. No surprise there. What's notable is that this imbalance remains at a time when college grads are disproportionately women.

Take economics for example. Research shows that only 29 percent of economics degrees are obtained by women. Investigating possible reasons, Harvard economics professor Claudia Goldin determined that women who earned a B in their introductory ECON course were half as likely to stick with and major in the subject as women who earned an A. Not true of men:

ECON 101 grades earned compared to likelihood of majoring in topic

Source: Washington Post

You can catch the drift: Fewer A grades are given out in STEM courses, yet women may be more discouraged than men are when they don't receive them. Women know that in other majors, like education, As are a lot easier to come by. . .And while making the switch to fields with less rigorous grading may feel good in the short term, the price of not accepting lower grades could lead women to abandon STEM fields they love and lower their earning potential down the road.

Why do women take a B harder than men? Where's our grit, ladies?