I met "Millie" at the start of her second year as a chemical engineering major while I was conducting a study on the retention of women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). Millie, a first-generation college student from rural Alabama, was attending the university on a full ride. Over the two years we worked together, she was awarded two engineering internships and maintained a very high GPA. At the end of her junior year, I asked her about her plans after graduation. Much to my surprise she said anything but chemical engineering! What happened to this highly successful engineer?
Millie's story is not uncommon for women who major in STEM. According to the Society of Women Engineers, only 31% of women with a STEM Bachelor's degree in 2019 entered into a STEM occupation. Men also leave STEM fields at high rates, but according to a 2019 U.S. Census Bureau study, the rates are higher for women. Considerable research focuses on why high school girls with strong math and science backgrounds fail to enter STEM majors, but research to understand the experiences of college women in STEM majors is also needed.
But if Millie is happier giving up a chemical engineering career, why does it matter? One factor to consider is that the quality of research and innovation in STEM is better when it comes from diverse teams, rather than those dominated by White men. Mae Jemison, a former NASA astronaut, stated in her 2019 testimony before the U.S. Congress that diversity in STEM is a necessity, not a nicety. Secondly, girls and women who are truly talented in science and math may fail to reach their full potential by choosing alternative careers that underutilize their talents. Further, STEM jobs typically pay more and result in greater personal wealth than jobs that are commonly filled by women, such as those in education and nursing. So, while we wished Millie much success in her alternative career path, there are scientific and personal benefits to retaining women in STEM.
What Factors Influence Retention?
To answer this, we can consider how students initially choose a major. Amanda Diekman at Indiana University proposed that majors and career choices depend on goal congruity. Diekman finds that careers in STEM are not typically seen as supporting the long-term life goals that women value most, such as those related to personal relationships and helping others. On the other hand, STEM careers are associated with prestige, status, and high salaries, goals that men tend to value more than women.
We wondered if the importance of different life goals might change over college for women in STEM. For example, the importance placed on marriage might grow as young adults reach their mid-twenties, a time when social norms expect them to commit to long-term romantic relationships. At the end of college, career goals may be heightened because financial independence from parents is expected.
To look at these issues, we focused on three life goals:
- Marriage-family,
- Career status (prestige, salary), and
- Social impact (the desire to help others, make the world a better place).
Our research asked two questions: How do men and women majoring in STEM differ on these life goals? How does the importance of these life goals change over college?
We asked over 440 STEM majors at different stages in their college program to rate the importance of these three life goals once a year for three years. We then charted their importance ratings for each of the life goals from the first year in college through the fifth year (most students take five or more years to graduate).
For the first two years of college, men and women majoring in STEM did not differ in their ratings of the three life goals, and each of the goals was rated fairly high. However, starting in the third year of college women placed greater value on social impact and marriage-family goals than men. Career status goals were consistently rated lower than the other two goals across all years. Importantly, men and women rated career status goals similarly at every time point.
Thus, at the start of their STEM majors, women may have similar long-term goals as men. However, the desire to do socially meaningful work and to establish long-term relationships becomes more important for women over time. Clearly, some women find their STEM degrees fully compatible with achieving these goals. Yet, for some who decide to take an alternative career path later, the perception of STEM careers as not benefiting society and as being disruptive to marriage and family goals may be a factor in that decision.
Back to Millie. Explaining her decision to leave STEM, Millie said that she did not find much meaning in her internships. She would much rather have a job where she could work with people. In the end, she graduated in chemical engineering, but planned to start a new career where she hoped she could directly benefit the lives of others.
For Further Reading
Barth, J. M., & Yang, Y. (2022). Changes in life goals over college: A comparison between men and women majoring in STEM. Sex Roles, 87(1), 20-34. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-022-01300-6. Research supported the National Science Foundation #HRD 1136266.
Corbett, C., & Hill, C. (2015). Solving the equation: The variables for women's success in engineering and computing. American Association of University Women. https://www.aauw.org/app/uploads/2020/03/Solving-the-Equation-report-nsa.pdf
Diekman, A. B., Steinberg M., Brown, E. R., Belanger, A. L., & Clark, E. K. (2017). A goal congruity model of role entry, engagement, and exit: Understanding communal goal processes in STEM gender gaps. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 21(2), 142 –175. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868316642141
Joan M. Barth is a Senior Research Scientist at the Institute for Social Science Research at The University of Alabama and studies the relations between gender stereotypes and career interests throughout development.
Yang Yang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Special Education, Counseling and Student Affairs at Kansas State University and has expertise in statistics and STEM education.
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