A Social Cognitive Construct Validation: Determining Women's and Men's Success in Engineering Programs.

The authors discuss the reasons for the recent success of women majoring in engineering. In high school, they were just as likely as males to take the appropriate prerequisite math, science, and physics courses. They were at the top of the mathematical test score range, and they were confident in their academic abilities. The authors stated that the women also had strong family support and high expectations for success. However, suggests the article, women were being dissuaded from pursuing male-dominated fields because of interpersonal difficulties in their courses due to rigid and condescending instructors. The study questions whether women are still experiencing discrimination and discontent in their engineering classes which may be influencing them to pursue other majors.