Stereotype threat as a barrier to women entering STEM careers

Vocational psychology has produced a great deal of research about the development of career interest and choice. Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT; Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994) has increasingly guided much of this research, particularly research that has been concerned with career pathways for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. Women and racial/ethnic minorities are largely underrepresented in STEM, increased research about the factors contributing to these disparate numbers in these domains is important as employment opportunities in STEM are on the rise. Thus far the proximal contextual affordances studied have minimally included research from social psychology regarding stereotype threat (Steele, 1997). Stereotype threat research has demonstrated that negative stereotypes about one's social identity can influence performance (e.g., women in mathematics). The purpose of the current study was to examine the relationships among stereotype threat and academic self-efficacy for women majoring in STEM fields. As coping efficacy has been shown to mediate the impact of barriers on academic self-efficacy and interests and moderate the relationship between variables related to identity and self-efficacy, the present study examined the impact of coping efficacy on the relationship between stereotype threat and self-efficacy.;Participants were 232 undergraduate women majoring in STEM fields. Stereotype threat was measured by stigma consciousness (Pinel, 1999) and the stereotype vulnerability scale (Spencer, 1993). Coping efficacy was measured by the Coping With Barriers scale (CWB; McWhirter, 1997) and academic self-efficacy by Lent et al.'s (1987) Self-Efficacy for Academic Milestones (AM-S) index. Responses were collected online and analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). Results of the mediation model showed a significant negative path from stigma consciousness to academic self-efficacy. When coping efficacy is included in the model, the direct path was no longer significant, but a significant indirect effect is present, suggesting coping efficacy's role as a mediator. Conversely, a moderation model was tested, showing that the interaction of coping efficacy and stigma consciousness was significant on academic self-efficacy. These findings offer an important addition to the proximal contextual barriers framework within SCCT. Additionally, they demonstrate that identity and environment interaction can be harmful to women's career development in STEM.