After an Otterbein University study of more than 800 students, the professors came away with a strange conclusion, College Reform reports. Women in STEM fields feel they’re putting more work into their studies to end up with approximately the same grade, They said that this keeps women from STEM because this “indicates that women’s higher perceived effort levels are not rewarded.”

They wrote:

Does a course grade primarily reward conceptual understanding and problem-solving ability, or does it primarily reward hard work, reflected in course attendance, submission of assignments on time, etc., or some mixture of the two?

Do you want somebody who is good at their job, or somebody who shows up and works really hard, but is not good at their job? When it comes down to it, you need to get the job done correctly. Yes, they need to be dependable, but it has to be done well.

Furthermore, they said, lower grades discourages students, and “we cannot rule out the possibility that lower motivation leads students to earn lower grades.” Again, does this sound like somebody who can get the job done?

Their suggestion?

Science educators could redistribute grades more akin to non-STEM disciplines to increase STEM retention.

Redistribute grades?

How about they grade people on their work? That’s actual equality.