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Comparison of Self-eﬃcacy and Performance of Engineering Undergraduate Women and Men*

There is a signiﬁcant underrepresentation of women in many Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) majors and careers. Prior research has shown that self-eﬃcacy can be a critical factor in student learning, and that there is a tendency for women to have lower self-eﬃcacy than men in STEM disciplines. This study investigates gender diﬀerences in the relationship between engineering students’ self-eﬃcacy and course grades in foundational courses. By focusing on engineering students, we examined these gender diﬀerences simultaneously in four STEM disciplines (mathematics, engineering, physics, and chemistry) among the same population. Using survey data collected longitudinally at three time points and course grade data from ﬁve cohorts of engineering students (3,928 students) at a large US-based research university, eﬀect sizes of gender diﬀerences are calculated using Cohen’s d on two measures: responses to survey items on discipline-speciﬁc self-eﬃcacy and course grades in all ﬁrst-year foundational courses and second-year mathematics courses. In engineering, physics, and mathematics courses, we ﬁnd sizeable discrepancies between self-eﬃcacy and performance, with men appearing signiﬁcantly more conﬁdent than women despite small or reverse direction diﬀerences in grades. In chemistry, women earn higher grades and have higher self-eﬃcacy. The patterns are consistent across courses within each discipline. All self-eﬃcacy gender diﬀerences close by the fourth year except physics self-eﬃcacy. The disconnect between self-eﬃcacy and course grades across subjects provides useful clues for targeted interventions to promote equitable learning environments. The most extreme disconnect occurs in physics and may help explain the severe underrepresentation of women in ‘‘physics-heavy’’ engineering disciplines, highlighting the importance of such interventions.