The Chronicle of Higher Education, October 25, 2011, Tuesday

The Chronicle of Higher Education

October 25, 2011, Tuesday

The Chronicle of Higher Education (full article)

Lack of Confidence as Professionals Spurs Women to Leave Engineering

Women who begin college intending to become engineers are more likely than men to change their major and choose another career, but it's because they lack confidence, not competence, says a paper in the October issue of the American Sociological Review.

"The more confident students are in their professional expertise, the more likely they are to persist in an engineering major. However, women have significantly less of this expertise confidence than do men," Ms. Cech writes, with her co-authors, Brian Rubineau of Cornell University, Susan Silbey of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Caroll Seron of the University of California at Irvine.