Two theories have emerged to explain the low proportion of women in engineering:
- Family plans: women’s desires to care for their family lead them to choose more flexible careers.
- Self-assessment: women’s perceived deficiency in core mathematics skills lead them to opt for careers outside of science.
A group of researchers tested these theories with a longitudinal cohort of engineering students and found no evidence for them. Instead, they posit a third theory:
3. Professional role confidence: women and men develop different levels of confidence in their ability to become successful members of their profession. 
The study, published in the American Sociological Review, finds that family plans and self-assessment scores does not reduce female students’ likelihood to stay in engineering. By contrast, confidence in professional expertise predicts career persistence.
The authors speculate that these results may explain why women in medicine cluster in more typically female-friendly specialties. Fortunately, programs can help address the gap in professional role confidence by exposing students to work internships so that they can build familiarity with the profession.
Tags: gender
Nice site you got here. Helped me out a bunch. I have a few questions though, is there anyone I could contact to answer them here? I could use a few opinions.
It’s unusual for me to find something on the net that’s as entertaining and intriguing as what you have got here. Your page is lovely, your graphics are outstanding, and what’s more, you use source that are relevant to what you’re saying. You are definitely one in a million, good job! Wish you 2011 Happy New Year!
Hey, I just hopped over to your website via StumbleUpon. Not somthing I might typically browse, but I appreciated your views none the less. Thank you for making some thing worth reading.