Women's Daily Positive Experiences and Engagement in US Male-Dominated Academic Majors

Women in male-dominated majors (MDMs), such as computer science, experience higher attrition rates than their male peers (Chen & Soldner, 2013). According to social cognitive career theory (SCCT; Lent et al., 1994), career decisions are the result of the interactions among the environment, personal attributes, and overt behaviors. Personal attributes, such as gender, have implications for the environment (e.g., academic department) of an individual making career decisions; research supports this tenet. Women in MDMs retrospectively report via surveys more negative events, sexism for instance, and fewer positive events, such as support from male peers in MDMs and female peers in gender-neutral majors (GNMs) like history (Ceci et al., 2009; Dresden et al., 2017). Observational research has shown that women in male-dominated fields interact less with instructors (Ceci et al., 2009), and experimental research has shown that women receive less career mentoring due to discrimination (Moss-Racusin et al., 2012).

Researchers have mainly collected data at one time point; students' experiences, however, change daily (London, Rosenthal, & Gonzalez, 2011). To address this gap, we used experience sampling methodology (ESM), which involves participants' completing multiple surveys throughout the day on current experiences. ESM is commonly used in stress research, yet rarely utilized when examining the experiences of women in MDMs. We consider it particularly beneficial, because many behaviors that make women feel welcome or unwelcome are minor behaviors that accumulate over time (Lawson et al., 2018; for a review of the benefits of ESM, see London, Rosenthal, & Gonzalez, 2011).

Research also supports a tenet of SCCT that the environment has implications for personal attributes, such as major engagement. Qualitative research with samples of women in MDMs and intervention studies have shown that inclusive class examples and supportive behaviors of professors and peers have positive implications for women's feelings of belonging, identification with major, and retention (e.g., Fisher & Margolis, 2002; Lawson et al., 2018; Ramsey et al., 2013). Research is needed to compare the strength of these associations for women in MDMs to their peers (men in MDMs and women in GNMs).

To address gaps in the literature, we used ESM to compare the daily positive major-related events for women in MDMs to events experienced by men in MDMs and women in GNMs in terms of their frequency and association with major engagement. Similar to past researchers on the topic, we treated gender as dichotomous (male/female). We predicted that: (Hypothesis 1) women in MDMs will experience fewer daily positive major-related events, relative to their peers; (Hypothesis 2) for all students, experiencing a positive event will predict more student engagement; and (Hypothesis 3) the association between positive major-related events and engagement will be weaker for women in MDMs compared to their peers (because women in MDMs are in environments where they may also be dealing with more negative experiences, less support, and combat stereotypes they are not skilled in these fields; Ceci et al., 2009; Dresden et al., 2018).

METHOD

Participants and Procedure

Data were part of a larger study examining the daily experiences of women at a midsize, Mid-western university that typically enrolls approximately 20,000 undergraduate students (79.83% White, 11.76% Black, 3.36% Hispanic, 2.52% Asian, 1.68% mixed race, 0.84% other; 24.17% first-year students, 30.83% sophomores, 30.00% juniors, 25.00% seniors). Participants (N = 120) included 40 women and 40 men from MDMs (at least 67% of majors are men nationally and at this university) and 40 women from GNMs (40%–60% of majors are women).

Participants were recruited via targeted emails (based on students' gender and major listing with the university, obtained from the office responsible for university statistic fact books, which conceptualizes gender dichotomously), flyers, in-class presentations, and university-wide emails. Interested students emailed the study coordinator, reporting their gender (all applicants reported male or female) and major; within one to two weeks they were then scheduled for an in-person assessment (1 to 4 participants per session) when they completed a survey (not used in this study), registered their smartphones for...