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Similarly, for junior females, a higher proportion lose confidence during the course of the
year than increase self-confidence.
It is in the senior year that we see a different pattern of male and female students.
Among males, the proportion losing self-confidence is much lower than at any other time
in the program, while the proportion increasing self-confidence is greater than among
juniors. Thus overall the male self-confidence that engineering is the right major for them
is strengthened during the senior year. This is not true for the females. The proportion
whose self-confidence is lowered during the academic year remains as high as among
juniors, and is a much higher proportion than those whose self-confidence increases or
stays the same. Thus, overall, the self-confidence of female students that engineering is
the right major for them, decreases during the senior year.
We can also look at how much change there was in this self-confidence. This was
calculated by subtracting the Fall answer from the Spring answer, and dividing by the
Fall answer. This standardized the percentage of change in responses, with the higher the
percentage, the greater the improvement in self-confidence, and the lower the percentage,
the greater the decrease in self-confidence from Fall to Spring.
We can see that in the first three years of the program, the self-confidence of females
that engineering is the right major for them increased to a greater extent than did that of
males (Figure IID-8). However, in the senior year, the change in self-confidence was of
the same magnitude for males and females; in other words, the strengthening of self-
confidence during the course of the academic year is greater for females for every year
except the senior year.
IID-141