Career motivations of freshman engineering and non-engineering students: A gender study

Abstract

A social cognitive career theory framework and Vroom's valence model are used to examine the importance that female freshman engineering students (n=87) place on various career-related outcomes, compared with other female freshmen (n=2236) and with male engineering students (n=484). The female engineering students were significantly different from both groups on several measures. This study finds that, in terms of certain career-related outcome valences, women students who choose engineering are not representative of women students in general, nor are they representative of engineering students in general. On three measures, they do not even fall between both comparison groups. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2009.