Gender role conflict, professional role confidence, and intentional persistence in engineering students in China

Abstract

In the current study, the relationship between gender role conflict, professional role confidence, and intentional persistence was examined using data from a survey of male and female Chinese engineering students. Intentional persistence was significantly associated with gender role conflict and professional role confidence; however, the pattern of associations differed for males and females. For male students, gender role conflict and professional role confidence were associated with intentional persistence; however, for female students, the association between professional role confidence and intentional persistence was moderated by gender role conflict.

Keywords:

• gender role conflict
• professional role confidence
• Chinese college engineering students
• intentional persistence
• gender patterns

Notes

1 Traditional engineering, developed in the early stage of the industrial revolution (before the twentieth century), includes architecture, mechanics, and electrical engineering. Modern engineering, developed in the twentieth century, includes aerospace, vehicle, industrial design, and computer and information science (Grayson 1977).

2 Registered permanent residence. In China, there are two different Hukou systems: Hukou registered in rural areas and Hukou registered in urban areas.

Additional information

Funding

This research was jointly supported by a project in the National Natural Science Foundation (NSFC) of China [No. 71173168] ‘The mechanism of gender role, engineering culture, and social change affecting technology orientations to Chinese women engineering students and early engineers’, the 985-3 Project of Xi'an Jiaotong University and Shaanxi Laboratory for Population and Development Research.