Women in science concentrations

This survey was designed to study the rate of persistence in science fields by undergraduate students who considered majoring in the sciences during their senior year in high school. The factors associated with this persistence were examined for both women and men. In the summer of 1983, a sample of 300 women and 300 men who had expressed an interest in majoring in the sciences on their college applications was selected. These incoming first year students were then matched by gender on a case-by-case basis within ten points of their SAT-math scores. For purposes of the study, science included biological sciences, physical sciences, mathematics, and engineering. The students were sent questionnaires during their first, second, and fourth years in college, requesting information about their high school experiences and achievements, self-concept, patterns of attribution of success and failure, and the background and influence of their parents. A subsample was interviewed during the students' sophomore year for more in-depth information about science courses they had taken, how they chose their concentrations, self-descriptions, and how they would compare the sciences, humanities, and social sciences as general disciplines. The Murray Center holds all computer-accessible data from this study and transcripts of the interviews for 9 subjects.