Q. Does word order matter in Google Scholar?

Yes, word order matters in Google Scholar. 

Google Scholar ranks your search terms based on their order. For example, if you want to find research about "women in STEM fields," a keyword search for "women STEM" might be a good search for Google Scholar, versus "STEM women" (follow the links to see how these results differ in Google Scholar).

However, in a traditional library database (e.g.: EBSCO, JSTOR), a search for "STEM women" would return the same results as "women STEM."