Using Gender and Self-Efficacy to Understand the Vocational Interests of Elite Engineering Students

• In Event: Learning and Development Through Race, Gender, and Sexuality Lenses

Abstract

We examine three types of cognitive schemas, beliefs about gender roles, self-efficacy, and vocational interests, for engineering students in an elite program of study. Survey data were collected from first-year engineering students at a large Midwestern university in the fall of 2014. Respondents scored both themselves and their perceptions of typical engineers using the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) (Bem 1974). Our work extends previous findings by including the BSRI and the moderating effects of gender on self-efficacy. Results suggest that engineering students come to the program with clear ideas about gender and perhaps choose specialties based on these beliefs along with matching their confidence in their abilities and interests in tasks relevant to the required work.

Authors

• Margaret S Kelley, University of Kansas

• David Sikkink, University of Notre Dame