What influences women’s success in undergraduate STEM programs?

A stable compatibility between gender and STEM identities contributes to students’ STEM success.

We all have multiple intersecting axes of identity, including our gender, race, profession, age, nationality and much more. But what happens when there is a clash of identities? A deaf musician or an aging athlete can face doubts about their sense of belonging and performance. The same is true for women in undergraduate STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) programs.

In 2013, Sheana Ahlqvist and her colleagues examined how perceived incompatibilities in one’s social identities is linked to various factors contributing to STEM success. One hundred and forty-six undergraduate women majoring in STEM fields were surveyed weekly during their first year of higher education and then at the beginning of their second year.

Women who are very attuned to rejections based on gender and who experienced threats to their social identities during the 1st year of their program felt less compatibility with STEM. These students detect and react more strongly to negative experiences such as for example, a professor questioning whether a woman student did her calculus homework on her own.

Weekly changes in feelings of compatibility were the result of negative academic (not social) experiences. Fluctuations in feeling compatible with one’s field of study were linked to lower belonging and engagement with STEM and a lower STEM GPA (but not non-STEM GPA) in the 2nd year follow-up.

The researchers concluded that since identity is a dynamic process, understanding and continually addressing the relationship between identity threats and STEM success is essential for supporting women scientists.

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Study Details

Sample size(s): First study (n= 146), Second year follow-up (n= 128)

Participants: Women students in undergraduate STEM programs with an average age of 18.08 years

Design: Quantitative, longitudinal survey

Reference:

Ahlqvist, S., London, B., & Rosenthal, L. (2013). Unstable identity compatibility: How gender rejection sensitivity undermines the success of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. Psychological Science, 24(9), 1644–1652.doi:10.1177/0956797613476048

Summarized by WinSights team members: Emily Ana Butler, Bianca Dreyer, Catherine Palm & Lorielle