Literature Review: Current Status of Women in Science and Engineering
The goal of the first portion of the ADVANCE Project at Virginia Tech is Institutionalizing Change. This is defined as a change in the awareness, attitudes and behaviors of key administrators and faculty members in S&E regarding gender equity issues.
Research of on the current state of recruiting and retention shows that although females make up approximately 19% of college graduates receiving B.S. degrees in engineering, they account for less than 3% of the engineering faculty positions in North America (Cauble et al, 2000).
Before any institutional change of attitudes and behaviors can be achieved, it is important to identify the current prevailing issues pertaining to those attitudes and behaviors one is attempting affect.
A study examining the work environment as perceived by women faculty found that some of the major issues for women in S&E fields were balancing work and personal obligations, an unfriendly institutional culture/climate, and lack of adequate informal social networks and mentoring for women ( Riger, S., Stokes, J., Raja, S. & Sullivan, M. (1997) .
Although the underlying reasons for any attitudes and behaviors are many, several common themes are reoccurring in the literature. These include the current state of institutional support for life/ family issues, prevailing climate and cultural issues, and the mentoring and networking systems available for women in S&E. Each of these topics is detailed below.
Individual Differences
Numerous individual differences have been advanced as a partial cause of the relatively lower motivation of women to enter S&E. Most research on individual differences is not helpful from an intervention or change framework. However, several individual differences found in the literature are such that the differences can be addressed with interventions.
Research indicates that women systematically differ from men in their source of motivation to enter S&E. Blossor (1990) found that female students tend to make their decisions regarding career choice based on internal feelings as opposed to external information. This makes the women least likely to have sufficient information to make decisions concerning their future careers. This is problematic because S&E fields tend to have less affective appeal. Blossor suggests possible interventions for future use.
One individual difference that has been thoroughly explored in the literature is self-efficacy. Self-efficacy can be described as a person’s beliefs in his or her ability to complete certain tasks (Brown, 1999) or that they can produce the expected outcomes (Colbeck, Cabrera & Terenzini, 2001) .
Self-efficacy has been linked to many desirable outcomes, including higher retention rates (Miller, 1993), persistence and social adaptive ability (Peterson, 1993). Underscoring the importance of maintaining self-efficacious beliefs, research has further found that the importance of self-efficacy beliefs may be even stronger for women in male-oriented domains than for those operating in traditional settings (Zeldin & Pajares 2000) .
Brown (1999) further found that women tended to have significantly lower self-efficacy in both academic and industry settings. Specifically it has been found that women’s efficacy regarding their engineering degree was significantly lower than that of their male counterparts (Colbeck et. al, 2001).
Many studies have found that interventions are highly effective in increasing women’s efficacy levels, which may in turn increase a number of desirable outcomes (e.g. Peterson, 1993; Zeldin & Pajares, 2000).
A study on college women with low career efficacy showed that efficacy and confidence levels relating to their career were significantly increased after taking part in interventions focused on building, repair, and construction activities (Betz & Schifano, 2000) .
Further studies have found that the influence of ability and self-efficacy differences among women in S&E are lessened by interventions. Findings suggest interventions increase women's aspiration levels in these fields (Nauta, Epperson et al. 1998) . For more detailed information on interventions see the Interventions section below or click here.
While numerous studies link individual and family differences as relating to the entry into and retention of women in S&E, Hanson (2001) found that very few family or individual variables have a significant impact on the decision to pursue a career in science. Rather, the gender disadvantage seems to be that women tend to have less access to mentoring and mentor relationships.
Other studies have replicated this finding. A study of self-efficacy in women and minorities found that women did not rely totally on skill to succeed in careers in which women are typically under represented; instead, women relied on people with whom they had positive relationships ( Coyle, 2001) .
In fact, some research has found that the effects of individual differences are not present beyond the undergraduate level (Sax, 2001)