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The main gender differences throughout the program, therefore, are related
specifically to self-confidence that they belong in engineering and their engineering
abilities, perhaps reflecting societal expectations of each gender.
The magnitude of these gender differences in engineering self-confidence varies by
year in the program, as we will show below in Chapter II-D. To some extent the gender
differences reflect the extent to which characteristics outside the system (such as the
support of significant others for their pursuit of engineering) affect engineering self-
confidence. Thus we will show that in the senior year, when background variables have
as much or more impact than among first-year students, the gender gap in engineering
self-confidence is as wide as it was for the first-year students. We suggest that it may be
the impact of forces outside of Rowan which is responsible for the wider gender
differences in engineering self-confidence: during the middle years of the program, when
the students are most influenced by the program itself, gender differences in engineering
self-confidence appear to be much smaller.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
Engineering self-confidence is made up of a number of different aspects: confidence
that the student belongs and will stay in engineering, confidence in specific engineering
abilities, and more generalized academic confidence and confidence in communication
abilities. The male students enter with more engineering self-confidence in terms of the
first two aspects but not in terms of the more generalized academic and communication
confidence. The engineering self-confidence with which students enter Rowan is related
in part to both their family and high school backgrounds. In particular, in terms of family
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