Factors influencing the educational and occupational choices of women

The purpose of this study is to examine self-efficacy in mathematics and various motivating factors among female college students who choose college majors in traditionally female-dominated fields as compared to those who chose college majors in traditionally male-dominated fields. The Mathematics Self-Efficacy Scale and an adapted version of the College Survey were administered to forty-six female college students. Differences between groups in the outcomes of the surveys were measured using a one-way ANOVA for the MSES and a chi-square and gamma test for individual items from the College Survey. The findings were that the MSES indicated differences between the groups in the manner expected, but the differences did not prove to be statistically significant. There were statistically significant differences between the groups on different items from the adapted College Survey that indicated differences in motivational factors contributing to choice of college major