Self-Concept and Support Experienced in School as Key Variables for the Motivation of Women Enrolled in STEM Subjects With a Low and Moderate Proportion of Females

The proportion of women enrolled in STEM courses at university level has remained consistently low for decades. Differences, however, exist between various STEM domains: While engineering and technology appear especially unattractive, subjects such as mathematics, biology, or chemistry have better chances at attracting women. Research has mostly neglected these differences, treating STEM as an overall category. In the light of the differences in the proportions of women enrolled in and dropping out of various STEM subjects, the present study takes a more differentiated look to separately investigate the STEM subjects that have a low or moderate proportion of females. The following study focuses on female university students’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivations in these two groups of STEM subjects, asking to what degree the academic STEM self-concept and support experienced in both school and the family contribute to the motivation to study a STEM topic. Four hundred sixty-nine female students took part in the investigation. Two hundred eighty-four of them were enrolled in STEM subjects with a low proportion of females (STEM-LPF) and 185 in STEM subjects with a moderate proportion of females (STEM-MPF). A comparison of the two samples shows that women in STEM-LPF exceed women in STEM-MPF with regard to their academic STEM self-concept and intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. Different variables contribute to motivation in the two samples. For STEM-LPF, a latent regression analysis found positive relationships between the academic STEM self-concept and both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, while support experienced in school and from the family was not related to motivation. By contrast, in the STEM-MPF sample, the academic self-concept was not related to motivation. Previous interest in STEM subjects in school contributed positively to present intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. An unexpected result, however, was found concerning activities in school that were designed to promote interest in STEM. Memories of these kinds of activities were negatively related to both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. These measures might be experienced as intrusive support: attempts to promote STEM sometimes might backfire and achieve the opposite of what was intended.