The gender gap between men and women is a contentious issue at the current moment. It is a subject sensitive to many people and to which various solutions have been proposed. The issue of gender difference is often addressed from an academic and professional point of view. Specifically the question concerns the reasons why men and women make unequal choices in their studies and work. This inequality could be attributed to a natural predisposition, or the tendencies of society to affect the choices of individuals. This thesis focuses on the academic situation, where italian universities in general have a higher percentage of female students than male, but the participation of women in some courses of study has an opposite trend: only a strong minority of women enroll in STEM faculties (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).