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oth that they will stay with engineering and that they have the skills and abilities to
succeed in engineering (just as we saw for first-year students). 20 However, the gender
differences are not statistically significant when the students assess their self-confidence
in overall academic ability or their communication skills. This can be seen in Table IIB-5,
which presents the mean scores on each of the self-confidence factors for all male and all
female students, as well as answers to some of the representative questions having high
loading on each factor.
In more detail, on the first factor, males express more self-confidence that they
belong in engineering and that they will stay with the major and the career (Table IIB-5).
Males express more confidence that engineering is the right major for them, that they are
well-suited for the major and the career, and they are very unlikely to drop out before
finishing the engineering degree. This finding is not unlike that of other studies, such as
the national WEPAN study (Brainard et al 1998), which found that female students have
lower self-confidence that engineering is the right major for them. However, it is striking
in the Rowan case, given the extent of positive indicators of women’s integration into the
program that we show below.
On the second factor, males also express more self-confidence in their engineering
abilities than do female students (Table IIB-5). Their scores on this factor are
significantly higher than female students’, reflecting that a higher proportion of the males
strongly agree that they are mechanically inclined, technically inclined, and good at
designing things.
20 The analysis is based on a comparison of factor scores of male and female students,
which is allowed because statistical analysis showed that the factor structure of females
and males is similar enough to compare scores of the different genders.
IIB-91