Characteristics of Female Students Who Aspire to Science and Engineering or Homemaking Occupations

Abstract

This study identified predictors that discriminated between nontraditional and traditional career aspirations in a sample composed of 930 eighth‐grade female students (52 Asian Americans, 123 Hispanics, 61 African Americans, 669 Whites, and 15 Native Americans). Results indicated that the students who aspired to careers in science or engineering scored significantly higher on educational aspirations; perceived parental expectations; student‐reported grade point averages (GPAs); and mathematics, reading, and science test scores than did girls who aspired to homemaking occupations. They also scored higher on measures of self‐esteem, internal locus of control, socioeconomic status, and had fewer siblings. Educational aspirations, parental expectations, self‐reported GPA, and science proficiency were the best discriminators between the groups. Results also indicated that differences in the distributions of career aspirations across racial‐ethnic groups were significant.

Characteristics of US Students That Pursued a STEM Major and Factors That Predicted Their Persistence in Degree Completion

“…Consistent with findings from other studies (Mau,[12], [13]; Mau, Domnick, & Ellsworth, [14]), we found female and minority students, except for Asian American students, were less likely than male or White students to declare a STEM major. Similarly, among those who completed a STEM major, a smaller percentage of female and minority students completed their degree in 5 years than their counterparts.…”

“…Of 2,453 CIP majors listed, 498 majors (20%) were classified as STEM majors that involve Science (CIP code 40), Technology (CIP code 11), Engineering (CIP code 14), and Mathematics (CIP code 27). The persistence dependent variable use for research question 3 is defined in the analysis section.…”

Factors Influencing High School Students to Persist in Aspirations of Teaching Careers

“…It is interesting that academic performance has been identified as an important predictor from previous studies (e.g., Mau, 2003;Mau, Domnick, & Ellsworth, 1995) but was found to have minimal predictive power in this study. We believe that students' academic proficiency may only influence persistence in certain career pursuits, such as science or engineering-related careers.…”

Career and Vocational Assessment 1995-1996: A Biennial Review

“…Although males had higher science-and math-related scores, women outperformed men in tests of writing ability. Differences in career aspirations-toward science/engineering careers vs. homemaker-were found in five racial-ethnic subgroups of American female eighth graders (Mau, Domnick, & Ellsworth, 1995). A study of female undergraduate home economics majors showed important differences in personality indices when correlated with choice of subspecialty.…”