Étude longitudinale de la représentation numérique des femmes dans les programmes de sciences et génie à l'université et ses effets sur la menace du stéréotype et sur la motivation

F ew women enroll in scientific disciplines that are traditionally associated with men. Thus, understanding women's autonomous motivation to pur sue studies in science and identifying the factors that affect their autonomous academic motivation are crucial issues that need to be addressed. The main purpose of this study was to propose and test an academic motivational model based on the Stereotype Threat Theory. Our model posits that a) under-representation of women and perception of low exposure to female role models foster the endorsement of gender stereotypes among women, and b) the endorsement of gender stereotypes subsequently undermines women's autonomous academic motivation. A total of 488 university students in science and engineering programs (167 women, 321 men) participated to a longitudinal study. Results show that women who perceived themselves to be underrepresented in their classes were more likely to experience an increase in their endorsement of gender stereotypes and a decrease in their levels of autonomous academic motivation over 18 months. In contrast to prior expectations, perception of exposure to female role models was not significantly related to autonomous academic motivation or to gender stereotype endorsement. In addition, no effect of prior gender stereotype endorsement on subsequent autonomous academic motivation was observed. As expected, these longitudinal relations were not significant for men. These results only provide partial support for our model since there was no effect of prior stereotype endorsement on subsequent motivation. Future research is thus needed to test our proposed model more extensively. Numerical Representation, Gender Stereotype Endorsement, and Autonomous Academic Motivation 63 In most industrialized countries, women make up the majority of the student population in universities. Nevertheless, few of them enroU in disciplines that are traditionally associated with men, such as mechanical engineering (14% of students are women), physics (16% are women) and industrial engineering (22% are women; CRSNG/ Alcan Chair, unpublished document; INWES, 2004). However, skilled and specialized workers in scientific fields are in high demand on the international markets (National Science Foundation, 2004). Thus, successfully attracting more women to the science and engineering fields and keeping them from dropping out of their academic programs constitute a central challenge for our society. It goes without saying that understanding woman's autonomous motivation (i.e., pursuing science curriculum out of choice and pleasure) to pursue studies in science and identifying the factors that affect their autonomous academic motivation are crucial issues that need to be addressed. Several studies have sought to understand why women are underrepresented in science and engineering programs. Sorne of these studies have targeted the stereotype of science as a male domain (Aronson, Quinn, & Spencer, 1998; Kahle & Meece, 1994; Seymour, 1995) because this stereotype can restrict women's choices regarding courses and career by projecting the image that these fields are not accessible to women and that it is not normal for them to enter and succeed in these fields (Kahle & Meece, 1994; Seymour, 1995). Moreover, the endorsement of this stereotype could affect the performance and the autonomous academic motivation of women who do choose to pursue studies in science and engineering (Croizet, Désert, Dutrévis, & Leyens, 2003; Croizet, Dutrévis, & Désert, 2002; Steele, 1997). In the present study, gender stereotype endorsement was examined in light of the Stereotype Threat Theory (Steele, 1997). Based on this theory, we hypothesized that under-representation of women and perceptions of low exposure to female role models in science foster the endorsement of the gender stereotype that science is a male domaine We also postulated that gender stereotype endorsement subsequently undermines women' s autonomous academic motivation regarding their programs. Hence, in the present study, we proposed and tested the following mediational model: numerical representation of women Numerical Representation, Gender Stereotype Endorsement, and Autonomous Academic Motivation 64 and perceptions of exposure to female role models in SCIence -7 gender stereotype endorsement -7 autonomous academic motivation (see Figure 1). In many respects, our study brings a unique contribution to the literature on the subject. First, most studies on the stereotype threat theory use samples of psychology students to evaluate the effects of stereotype threat on women's performance. In contrast to these studies, the proposed model was tested on a sample of women in science and engineering programs. The choice of this population increases the generalization of results because women in our sample were directly targeted by the stereotype which purports that they do not have the abilities needed to perform in these fields. Second, whereas most studies in the stereotype threat theory literature use an experimental design, the proposed model was tested in a natural setting (Inzlicht & Ben-Zeev, 2003; Kray, Thompson, & Gal insky , 2001; Sax, 1996) thereby increasing the ecological validity of the present findings. Third, in contrast to past studies that are characterized by a cross-sectional design, the present one is longitudinal. It go es without saying that such a design is particularly useful for testing the mediational model outlined above. Gender Stereotype Endorsement Walter Lippman (1922) described stereotypes as "the pictures in our head" that simplify the world by saving us the trouble of thinking too much when we come into contact with other people. These pictures are expectations of what people will be like, what they can and they cannot do. These expectations are usually generalized to aIl members of the group without considering individual differences among people who belong to the group (Bourhis, Gagnon, & Moïse, 1994). People become familiar with the content of stereotypes at a relatively young age (Aboud, 1988). For example, most American children, by middle childhood, have come to believe that Blacks and Latinos are less intelligent than whites and that Asians are good at math while girls are not, and so on (e.g. McKown & Weinstein, 2003). Négative stereotypes have dramatic psychological consequences for people who are targeted by them. When a person is placed in a situation where a negative stereotype about his or her group exists, he or she will experience stereotype threat (Aronson, 2002; Croizet Numerical Representation, Gender Stereotype Endorsement, and Autonomous Academic Motivation 65 et al. , 2003). According to the Stereotype Threat Theory (STT; Steele & Aronson, 1995), a threat refers to individuals' fear of confirming, through their behaviors, a stereotype associated with their group. This threat interferes with individuals' performance, thus supporting the stereotype without them knowing it. According to this the ory , in order for the threat to affect performance, three conditions must be present: (1) there must be a known negative stereotype about a social group in a particular field; (2) the individual must identify with the field in question and attach importance to it; and, (3) the individual must be faced with a task which reveals the stereotype (Steele, 1997; Steele & Aronson, 1995). In the present study, the sample was made up of female science and engineering students. Testing women in these programs offered the possibility to meet the three conditions outlined above since 1) women in our sample were targeted by the gender stereotype that science is more for men than for women, 2) they attached sorne importance to these programs because they had selected them, and 3) they constantly faced academic tasks (i.e., exams, reports) that could reveal the stereotype. Several STT studies have focused on the stereotype that women have less mathematical ability than men (Aronson & Steele, 2005; Smith & White, 2001; Spencer, Steele, & Quinn, 1999). Results of these studies show that women' s performance is equivalent to that of men in a situation where there is no obvious stereotype threat. However, when women are exposed to a negative stereotype about their group (e.g. a difficult math test) they feel anxious about being judged along stereotypicallines and they feel an extra pressure to succeed. This extra pressure could lead women to perforrn less weIl than men, which ironically confirms the stereotype (Martens, John, Greenberg, & Schimel, 2006; Smith & White, 2001; Spencer et al., 1999; Steele, James, & Bamett, 2002). However, few studies have evaluated the role of gender stereotypes explicitly. Those which have examined women's own beliefs about gender stereotypes show that the endorsement of the stereotype increases the effects of the stereotype threat (Aronson & Steele, 2005; Schmader, Johns, & Barquissau, 2004). In addition to a decline in performance, studies on the stereotype threat theory show that this threat is associated with other negative consequences such as increased anxiety, decreased motivation toward the activity and, ultimately, a disengagement from it (Croizet Numerical Representation, Gender Stereotype Endorsement, and Autonomous Academic Motivation 66 et al. , 2003 ; Steele, 1997). In the present study, we decided to focus on autonomous academic motivation as a consequence of stereotype threat. Autonomous academic motivation stems from the conceptualization of the Self-Determination Theory (SDT, Deci & Ryan, 1985) and encompasses reasons for doing an activity that relate to positive affective dimensions (pleasure, satisfaction) and identification with the activity (i.e., importance, utility). Numerous studies in education have shown that students who are autonomously motivated to perform academic activities have higher achievement levels (Guay & Vallerand, 1997; Vansteenkiste, Simons,