GSE/RES: Women's Persistence in Engineering Careers: Barriers and Supports

智力价值：这项研究旨在了解导致一些女性坚持从事工程学职业，而另一些女性则放弃该职业的原因。大多数关于有效干预的研究都集中在增加女性对工程专业的选择上。然而，尽管女性现在占工程专业毕业生的20%，但只有11%的专业工程师是女性。显然，女性选择不进入或坚持从事工程学职业的比例不成比例，但研究尚未系统地调查哪些因素可能会影响她们的决定。这可能是由于他们自己对管理组织氛围、执行工程任务或平衡工作和家庭角色的担忧，也可能是由于环境障碍，如寒冷的组织氛围。社会认知职业理论(SCCT)模型可以用来解释工程类职业女性留任的相关因素。SCCT预测，自我效能感和结果预期通过对兴趣的影响间接作用于持久力，进而影响选择行为(例如，选择留在职业生涯还是离开)。本研究将通过考察自我效能感和结果期望(工程任务、工作/家庭平衡和组织氛围)、兴趣、障碍和对职业生涯不同阶段(毕业后5年、10年、15年、20年)女性的支持三个领域，将这项SCCT研究扩展到从事工程工作的女性(或已经离开这些职业的女性)。这项工作的一个前提是，职业承诺和工作满意度预测退缩认知和辞职意图，这反过来又预测坚持或离职。这项研究将纵向跟踪女性队列，对影响她们决定留在或离开工程师职业的因素提供横断面和纵向视角。更广泛的影响：除了在相关专业期刊上发表外，调查结果还将用于向各组织提供实用指导，以帮助它们制定和执行有效的政策，从而留住女工程师。这些发现还可能被用来帮助开发干预措施，帮助增加女性在工程行业的留住。最后，更广泛的影响将包括培养研究生成为未来的专业人员，拥有社会认知职业理论方面的专业知识，并审查女性工程师的职业生涯。

Intellectual Merit: This study is designed to understand the factors that lead some women to persist in engineering careers and others to leave it. Most of the research on effective interventions has focused on increasing women's choice of engineering major. However, though women are now 20% of engineering graduates only 11% of professional engineers are women. Clearly, women are disproportionately choosing not to enter or persist in engineering careers, but research has not systematically investigated what factors may contribute to their decisions. This may be due to their own concerns about managing the organizational climate, performing engineering tasks, or balancing work and family roles or could be due to environmental barriers, such as a chilly organizational climate. The Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) model may help to explain the factors related to retention for women in engineering career. SCCT predicts that self-efficacy and outcome expectations act indirectly on persistence through their influence on interests, which in turn influences choice behavior (e.g., choice to stay in the career or leave). This study will extend this SCCT research to women in engineering careers (or who have left those careers) by examining three domains of self-efficacy and outcome expectations (engineering tasks, work/family balance, and organizational climate), interests and barriers and supports for women in different stages of their career (5, 10, 15, 20 years post graduation). One premise of the work is that career commitment and job satisfaction predict withdrawal cognitions and the intent to quit, which in turn, predict either persistence or turnover. The study will follow cohorts of women longitudinally, providing both cross-sectional and a longitudinal perspective on factors influencing their decisions to stay, or leave, an engineering career. Broader Impact: Beyond the publication in relevant professional journals, the findings will also be used to provide practical guidance to organizations that may help them in designing and implementing effective policies that lead to the retention of women engineers. The findings may also be used to help develop interventions that may help to increase the retention of women in engineering careers. Finally, the broader impact will include preparing graduate students as future professionals with an expertise in social cognitive career theory and in examining careers of women engineers.