Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering

ISSN for PRINT: 1072-8325

For Online Access

Best Paper Award Selection - Editorial Board Site

2003, Volume9

Issue 3&4

218 pages

DOI: 10.1615/JWomenMinorScienEng.v9.i34

Issue price - $84.00

Mary Wyer
Women’s and Gender Studies, Psychology, North Carolina State University

Many contemporary studies of persistence in science and engineering majors find that students’ gender is an important explanatory variable in understanding why students leave and stay in their majors. This study revisits an earlier report by this author to explore the relative impact of gender on persistence when field of major is held constant, using the same data as the earlier work, drawing on survey responses from 285 students in required biology and engineering courses. The author argues two points: that effects of field on students’ persistence are often misinterpreted as gender effects and that gender is too often understood in the narrow sense of students’ sex. The author finds that when field is taken into account, students’ sex has little explanatory power for understanding persistence rates. In contrast, students’ positive experiences with and positive attitudes about gender equity significantly enhance commitments to science and engineering majors, advanced degrees, and careers. The results suggest the need for field-specific interventions to promote the advancement of undergraduate women in science and engineering.

DOI: 10.1615/JWomenMinorScienEng.v9.i34.50 Download article, 14 pages

Article price - $35.00

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