to see the entire research report - Rowan - Rowan University

usiness students were included at Texas A&M or because of a heightened awareness of
possible problems for women at Rowan, is something that merits further study.
Finally, like the Rowan students, at Texas A&M fewer women than men perceive
problems of encouragement from friends or family to pursue non-traditional careers.
Presumably these women receive support, and therefore are in the fields; men may be
responding to the more stereotypical image of support for women in the non-traditional
fields.
To understand better the underlying dimensions of these perceptions, the eleven items
were factor analyzed (using a varimax rotation model). Three factors emerged, reflecting
three different types of problems that women are perceived to encounter.
The first factor (SOCPROB) deals with society’s attitudes to women in science,
engineering and math: discriminatory attitudes toward women on the part of teachers or
others in scientific fields generally and at Rowan in particular, lacking encouragement
from teachers, counselors, family or friends ( λ= .36).
The second factor (FEMPROB) dealt with the view that science, engineering or
math require unfeminine characteristics: the view that women majoring in these fields are
unfeminine, that women lack information about careers in the scientific field and lack
female role models in scientific fields, the view that women cannot be as competitive as
science classes require, and that women lack confidence that they can handle the work
(λ=.13).
The final factor (FAMPROB) dealt with the conflict between career and family:
the long years of formal preparation needed, and possible conflicts between career and
family responsibilities (λ=-.11).
IIG-244