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Abstract An abundance of literature has examined barriers to women’s equitable representation in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields, with many studies demonstrating that STEM fields are not perceived to afford communal goals, a key component of women’s interest in future careers. Using Goal Congruity Theory as a framework, we tested the longitudinal impact of perceptions of STEM career goal affordances, personal communal and agentic goal endorsements, and their congruity on persistence in science from the second through fourth years of college among women in STEM majors in the United States. We found that women’s intent to persist in science were highest in the fall of their second year, that persistence intentions exhibited a sharp decline, and eventually leveled off by their fourth year of college. This pattern was moderated by perceptions of agentic affordances in STEM, such that women who believe that STEM careers afford the opportunity for achievement and individualism experienced smaller declines. We found that higher perceptions of communal goal affordances in STEM consistently predicted higher persistence intentions indicating women may benefit from perceptions that STEM affords communal goals. Finally, we found women with higher agentic affordances in STEM also had greater intentions to persist, and this relationship was stronger for women with higher agentic goals. We conclude that because STEM fields are stereotyped as affording agentic goals, women who identify interest in a STEM major during their first years of college may be drawn to these fields for this reason and may benefit from perceptions that STEM affords agentic goals.
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Investigating engineering undergraduates' agentic and communal career values in writing responses
Abstract BackgroundA perceived fit between personal values and what a career offers is critical for college students pursuing and persisting in that career. Purpose/Hypothesis(es)We, therefore, investigated the career values of engineering undergraduates through language in two different studies. Study 1 (N = 35) examined students' written postgraduation plans for agentic and communal career value themes. Drawing on Study 1 themes, Study 2 (N = 918) examined the association of achievement‐related and interpersonal word categories in written narratives to surveyed career values. Design/MethodIn Study 1, inductive and deductive approaches were used to identify agentic and communal career values. In Study 2, regressions were conducted using achievement‐related and interpersonal words as outcomes. ResultsStudy 1 found agentic and communal value themes. Agentic value themes included career, personal development, and financial gains. Communal value themes included helping others and being family‐oriented. Results from Study 2 showed that students' language use in the discussion of their careers was associated with surveyed career values. ConclusionAlthough engineering students hold more agentic than communal values, they hold both career values, which may have implications for supporting students from diverse backgrounds.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1742627
- PAR ID:
- 10500661
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Engineering Education
- Volume:
- 113
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 1069-4730
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: p. 308-329
- Size(s):
- p. 308-329
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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