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Successful Women Majoring In Stem Have Higher Optimism And Lower Stigma Consciousness, Bridget Muise, Bettina Casad
Successful Women Majoring In Stem Have Higher Optimism And Lower Stigma Consciousness, Bridget Muise, Bettina Casad
Undergraduate Research Symposium
Women are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education. We had 607 women majoring in STEM complete an online questionnaire reporting levels of coping, rejection sensitivity, stigma consciousness, and optimism and grade point average (GPA) was collected from school records. Results showed that higher rejection sensitivity predicts lower GPA even with higher coping skills. This indicates that even with good coping skills, higher fear of rejection for one's gender had a stronger effect on the academic performance of women in STEM. Additionally, higher optimism predicts higher GPA, but only for women with lower gender stigma consciousness. Optimism seems …