Professional Role Confidence Examined
Dear friends of women in science,
A recent article in American Sociological Review presented information on the self-perceptions of engineering undergraduate students. The study examined 288 first year students at MIT, Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, Smith College, and U. Mass, Amherst via online surveys; they followed up to find out how many of these students were still studying engineering three years later. Female students were more likely to have dropped out of engineering, but they twice as likely as their male counterparts to have moved sideways to another science discipline.
The study examined whether three kinds of factors could predict persistence in engineering: family considerations, self-assessed math ability, and professional role competence, a trait described as "individuals' confidence in their ability to fulfill the expected roles, competencies, and identity features of a successful member of their profession." Only this last factor, the professional role compentence as perceived by the students, predicted persistence in engineering.
I believe this factor is related to what Ellen Daniell called the fraud factor in her book, Every Other Tuesday, about a network of supportive women in science. Women often feel like they are perceived as more able and prepared than they actually are, i.e. they feel like frauds. AWIS has developed a webinar about this problem, which is available to be shown at different institutions, and is soon going to be presented by WISELI at University of Wisconsin.
In any case, the paper suggested that the poor representation of women in professions dominated by men could arise from this problem in perceiving themselves as competent in their future professional roles. They further suggest that STEM students can be helped by interacting with actual engineers/scientists outside of the classroom via shadowing or internships. I'd say, the contact with successful women in the profession could even be via a talk or an especially effective video (like the one Bonnie Bassler did that we discussed earlier). Or a scientific biography of a woman. What young women need, it seems to me, is to be convinced that women can be successful in that field, can carry out the plans they have tentatively made, and can look confident and comfortable with it. Do you agree?
cheers,
Laura
Laura,
Surprisingly, the results of this study make sense to me. Since most teachers and students in engineering are male, the approach taken in the course curricula is most commonly a male-oriented one. As you have discussed in past posts, women show more interest and comfort with different presentation styles than the typical one designed for men.
Melissa -
As for the mathematics content, at an undergraduate level engineering classes are often taught from a non-mathematical perspective. I learned that both as a student and as a teacher. Examples given below:
1. I once received zero credit on a problem set in an elementary electrical engineering class because I used differential equations to solve the problems rather than an approximate engineering technique.
2. I took graduate level fluid mechanics classes without any fluids background, but was able to manage because much of the class was focused was teaching students the mathematics behind the engineering they had previously (as undergrads) learned.
3. I taught a required mathematics class, offered as a graduate level mechanical engineering class, whose focus was to teach first year graduate students the mathematics they would need to pursue graduate studies. It was assumed that their undergraduate program was deficient in mathematical content.
Knowledge of mathematics is required for engineering, but an undergraduate engineering program is not necessarily as mathematical as, say, physics or mathematics. Also, different engineering disciplines require differing levels of mathematical proficiency. One can be comfortable with the mathematics of engineering but still not feel the engineering curriculum is suitable.
Marian
Hi Laura,
I think if you examine this case, self-assessed math ability is even more surprising than family ideas, to be a factor not correlated with persistence. I don't really understand how self-assessed math ability would not be highly correlated with this new professional competency prediction. Why wouldn't good math skills make you think you'd be a good engineer? I just don't get it.
MKS
Dear Laura
I think an internship is a lot more powerful than a lecture because it lasts longer and because the student has "ownership" of the work, a concept you usually push, right? A lecture or video has less of this latter quality, probably a book does too although it takes longer to read, but it's someone else's experience in the end. So both duration and ownership seem to be part of the best experiences, to me.
RKV
Hi Laura,
I am pretty surprised that family ideas were NOT correlated. But I can certainly see why this professional competency assessment matters. If you suspect you aren't competent, then you must be uncomfortable all the time.
And yes, I agree with you that pretty much any evidence that women can do well in the chosen area ought to help these doubtful women.
I can't recall ever feeling this way, but perhaps I'm just not as sensitive to small slights as some other people are. I've had other women come up to me at meetings expecting me to be enraged about something a man has done and I barely noticed it.
regards, Fran
