Stereotype threat as a barrier to women entering engineering careers

Modeling stereotypes and negative self‐stereotypes as a function of interactions among groups with power asymmetries

“…Similarly, a final salience greater than zero for the high power group, shows that it retained the stereotype about the low power group. To help in understanding Figure , we will resort to a running example about an engineering program with a minority group of female students that hold the negative self‐stereotype that “women are bad at math” (see, e.g., Cadaret et al, ). Thus, the high power group would be men in the program (students and faculty members) who hold the corresponding stereotype.…”

“…This is the basis for the stereotype threat phenomenon, in which people underperform because they believe that their ingroup has a trait associated with underperformance in a certain domain. A much‐discussed case is women embracing the stereotype that they perform worse at math than men (Spencer, Steele, & Quinn, ; see also Cadaret et al, ; Nguyen & Ryan, ; Schmader & Johns, ; but see Flore & Wicherts, ). We believe that negative self‐stereotypes pose a challenge to any theory of stereotypes.…”

The relationship between demographics and the academic achievement of engineering students

“…The relationship between demographics and the academic achievement of engineering students The number of male students outweigh those of the female students by more than 3:1 (2845 male students from Table 2 versus 855 female students from Table 1). A possible reason for this may be related to stereotyping, where the cognitive behaviour of women are influenced by what society in general promotes (Cadaret, Hartung, Subich, & Weigold, 2016). However, a very similar ratio exists with regard to the home languages of both genders, with the notable exception of Afrikaans (559 males to 32 females representing a ratio of more than 17:1).…”

“…This module is offered at the end of the course and requires students to synthesize their previously acquired knowledge in the design and construction of a working electronic project to address a specific engineering problem. Most engineering problems require a significant amount of background knowledge from a variety of fields (DiBenedetto, Hoerl, & Snee, 2014). Students have to therefore demonstrate a number of different graduate attributes, such as engineering knowledge, problem analysis, design and development of solutions, investigation, modern tool usage, teamwork, communication, project and management and finance skills (International Engineering Alliance, 2013).…”

Engineering Technology Students - How do They Compare to Other STEM Students?

“…Some assert that the demographics of different STEM groups have changed due to these efforts inside and outside of the formal school setting. However, the demographics have not changed in ways that reflect current demographics of the population at large 14 . It is unclear if this is due to targeted or convenient venues for outreach or if it is due to some other reason.…”