The Impact of College on Post-College Commitment to Science Careers: Gender Differences in a Nine-Year Follow-Up of College Freshmen.

This study examined factors predicting the enrollment of men and women in science, math, and engineering (SME) graduate programs among those who had earned SME Bachelor's degrees. The data, which covered a 9-year period: 1985, 1989 (4-year follow-up), and 1994 (9-year follow-up), was drawn from the Cooperative Institutional Research program, a national longitudinal study of 12,000 students from the 1985 freshman class. Analysis were limited to 2,563 college students who had earned an SME bachelor's degree, found that students from engineering and the physical sciences who were most likely to enroll in SME graduate programs, followed by students from the biological and mathematics/computer sciences. While there were no gender differences in the likelihood of enrollment in SME graduate programs among students from the biological sciences and engineering, men from the physical and mathematics/computer sciences were more likely than women in those field to pursue SME graduate education. Using regression analysis, it was determined that the strongest predictor of women's enrollment in SME graduate programs was having a precollege interest in making a theoretical contribution to science. Women's pursuit of SME graduate degrees was also positively affected by having a mother who was either a research scientist or college teacher. Two appendixes provide variable definitions and coding schemes and factor scales. (Contains 41 references.) (MDM) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ******************************************************************************** The impact of college on post-college commitment to science careers: Gender differences in a nine-year follow-up of college freshmen U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDU ATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. Linda J. Sax Higher Education Research Institute University of California, Los Angeles 3005 Moore Hall Los Angeles, CA 90095-1521 PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY Linda J. Sax TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) Presented at the annual meeting of the Association for the Study of Higher Education Memphis, Tennessee, November 1996 1 2 ST COPYAVAILABLE The impact of college on post-college commitment to science careers: Gender differences in a nine-year follow-up of college freshmen In the past thirty years, women have increased their share of science, math, and engineering (SME)1 bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees by 106 percent, 150 percent, and 267 percent, respectively (National Science Foundation, 1995). Although the gender gap has certainly narrowed in these past decades, women have not yet achieved parity. Currently, women are underrepresented among SME degree recipients at all levels, particularly at the graduate level, earning 33 percent of bachelor's degrees, 25 percent of master's degrees, and 22 percent of doctoral degrees (calculated from NSF, 1995 data). Numerous studies have addressed women's underrepresentation in science, providing many answers to questions such as: Why are young girls less interested in science than boys are? What factors discourage women from taking more math and science courses in high school? What types of women choose to major in SME fields in college? And among them, who persists towards the bachelor's degree? Many fewer studies, however, address the question of persistence in science after the undergraduate years. In some ways, this question is a lot more difficult to answer. Certainly, a student with a bachelor's degree in physics who ultimately earns a physics doctorate can be considered an SME persister. And an engineer turned artist can probably be considered a non-persister in SME. However, what about the undergraduate math major who becomes a junior high school algebra teacher? Or the biology major who becomes a heart surgeon? Certainly these individuals have not abandoned SME fields entirely. For this reason, any study of persistence in SME beyond the undergraduate years must be particularly careful with definitions. This study considers persistence in SME as the continued pursuit of a career in scientific research. This definition purposefully focuses on the development of the talent pool of academic scientists and engineers and other scientific researchers. More specifically, this study focuses on how 1 SME fields include engineering; physical sciences; earth, atmospheric, and ocean sciences; mathematics and computer science; and biological science.