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Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering

Published 6 issues per year

ISSN Print: 1072-8325

ISSN Online: 1940-431X

SJR: 0.514 SNIP: 0.875 CiteScore™:: 2.4 H-Index: 27

Indexed in

GENDER-BIASED SELF-EVALUATIONS OF FIRST-YEAR ENGINEERING STUDENTS

Volume 21, Issue 3, 2015, pp. 255-269
DOI: 10.1615/JWomenMinorScienEng.2015013125
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ABSTRACT

Systemic gender disparities exist in most science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. In traditionally masculine domains such as STEM, women typically underestimate their performance compared with men. Gender-biased self-evaluations can have detrimental effects on women's performance and persistence in these domains. What is unclear is the nature and source of these gender-biased self-evaluations. Three hundred and eighty-three first-year engineering students performed a task in one of two conditions (one more challenging than the other) and then evaluated their own performance. Performance on the task was then independently rated by professional engineers who were blind to participants' experimental condition and sex. Despite no significant sex differences in independently rated performance, female engineering students significantly underestimated their performance compared with male students. Male students had more accurate self-evaluations of their performance than their female peers. These findings held regardless of task difficulty, even when factoring in students' mechanical aptitude and familiarity with the task. Importantly, students' self-evaluation of their ability was a significant predictor of how they actually performed on the engineering task. We discuss these findings in the context of retaining women in masculine domains such as engineering.

CITED BY
  1. Robnett Rachael D., Thoman Sarah E., STEM success expectancies and achievement among women in STEM majors, Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 52, 2017. Crossref

  2. Smith Kathleen N., Gayles Joy Gaston, “Girl Power”: Gendered Academic and Workplace Experiences of College Women in Engineering, Social Sciences, 7, 1, 2018. Crossref

  3. Robnett Rachael D., Nelson Paul A., Zurbriggen Eileen L., Crosby Faye J., Chemers Martin M., The Form and Function of STEM Research Mentoring: A Mixed-Methods Analysis Focusing on Ethnically Diverse Undergraduates and Their Mentors, Emerging Adulthood, 7, 3, 2019. Crossref

  4. Kapp Felix, Spangenberger Pia, Kruse Linda, Narciss Susanne, Investigating changes in self-evaluation of technical competences in the serious game Serena Supergreen: Findings, challenges and lessons learned, Metacognition and Learning, 14, 3, 2019. Crossref

  5. Bairaktarova Diana N., Pilotte Mary K., Person or thing oriented: A comparative study of individual differences of first‐year engineering students and practitioners, Journal of Engineering Education, 109, 2, 2020. Crossref

Forthcoming Articles

Mitigating Barriers, Scaffolding Success: Institutional Supports for Black Undergraduate Women in Engineering Programs Meseret Hailu, Neelakshi Rajeev Tewari, Brooke Coley Underrepresented Students Pursuing Mathematics-Intensive Degrees: Changes after Transitioning to College Alison Marzocchi What do STEM Clubs do? The Effect of College Club Participation on Career Confidence and Gender Inclusion Guillermo Dominguez Garcia, Jennifer Glass Validating Practices and Messages that Promote Women’s Engineering Classroom Belongingness: An Intersectional Approach Dina Verdin, A Lili Castillo Examining the Role of Institutional Support on International Doctoral Women’s STEM Persistence and Mental Health Aisha Farra, Aashika Anantharaman, Sarah Swanson, Kerrie Wilkins-Yel, Jennifer Bekki, Nedim Yel, Ashley Randall, Bianca Bernstein Searching for safe space: Student veterans’ uneven pathways to STEM careers by race Brittany Hunt, Jae Hoon Lim Does Race, Ethnicity or Gender of the Mentor Affect Whether They Will be a “Good Mentor”? A Qualitative Analysis of Students’ Perceptions Reuben May, Christine Stanley, America Soto-Arzat, Jennifer Ackerman PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY AND TEAM MEMBER EFFECTIVENESS OF MINORITIZED STUDENTS IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION Behzad Beigpourian, Matthew Ohland Perceptions of Department Chair Roles and Responsibilities in Career Progression and Success of Women STEM Faculty Stephanie Jones, Patricia Ryan Pal “Barbed-Wire Boundaries”: Hidden Curriculum, First-Generation and Low-Income Engineering Students, and Internship Acquisition Jerry Yang, Joseph Towles, Sheri Sheppard, Sara Atwood “I Want to Make an Impact”: The Science Identity and Career Goals of Black and Latinx Science and Engineering Postdoctoral Scholars Sylvia Mendez, Kathryn Watson, Kathryn Starkey, Valerie Conley Care Work, Science Brokering, and Career Motivations: How Hispanic/Latinx Young Adults in STEM Express Social Agency during the COVID-19 Pandemic Angela Frederick, Angelica Monarrez, Danielle Morales Bridging the gap: A sequential mixed methods study of trust networks in graduate application, admissions, and enrollment Cynthia Villarreal, Julie Posselt, Theresa Hernandez, Alexander Rudolph
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