Non switchers cited intrinsic interest in the subject as a prime source of motivation more than twice as commonly as switchers. Women were about twice as likely as men to have chosen an SME major through the active influence of someone significant to them. In addition, women have a hard time separating their feelings for the professor from their performance. More women than men arrive in college with the expectations of establishing a personal relationship with faculty. Depending on teachers for performance evaluation, reassurance about progres and as a basis for motivation constitutes a serious handicap for the many women who enter college having learned how to learn in this manner.
Men are more willing to place career goals above personal satisfaction.
Young women show a greater concern to make their education, their career goals and their personal priorities fit together. Most men seem to recognize and respond to the unwritten rules of this adult male social system because they are consistent with male adults and peers throughout their formal education, sports and social life. Faculty are unwittingly discouraging women more than men by behavior which is actually the same for both men and women. What this means is that faculty are just as awful to men. But most men find it easier to just blow it off.