Gender Diversity in Undergraduate Engineering: Understanding the Major Selection Process

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Abstract Literature shows two factors that affect students' selection of college major: academic aptitude and personal expectations. Some studies have found a difference in these variables based on gender. Malgwi, Howe, and Burnaby (2005) found that male students choose majors based on potential career options, while female students choose majors based on academic ability. Our study seeks to confirm whether this result is observed when examining engineering students' major selection, major selection influences, and the timing of a student's decision. To design the research survey, four previous studies and associated surveys were consulted: Kuechler & Simkin (2009); Arcidiacono & Kang (2012); Culpepper (2006); and Malgwi, Howe & Burnaby (2005). Our study targets undergraduate students to determine (1) When they began to gain an interest in their selected major, and (2) Who or what was influential in that process. The 52-question instrument was approved by consortial IRB from the authors' institutions, and the study was conducted at 3 separate institutions, each with at least one ABET accredited program. Preliminary data based on nearly 100 responses collected so far from students currently majoring in engineering suggests that: (1) female engineering students early in their undergraduate studies are already more likely to consider graduate degrees than their male counterparts, (2) female students tend to be more academically prepared than their male counterparts, and (3) though female students became interested in STEM majors throughout their educational careers, they did not choose engineering specifically until later than their male classmates. Due to the nature of the questions in the instrument, most responses analyzed in this study were collected as categorical or ordinal data; results are therefore presented primarily through visual representations using frequency distributions.

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