Implicit Indicators of Women ' s Persistence in ' ~ ath , Science , and Engineering

The dispoportionate dropout rate of female college students from math, science, and engineering (MSE) fields has recently received much attention (Brainard, Laurich-McIntyre, 6' Moblqr, 1995; Carlin, 1997). The reasons far women 's higher attrition rate from MSE fields remain unclear. Eighty lstyear university students with apeexisting interest in MSE complehd a computer task-the Implicit Association Test (IAT)--that measured identification with MSE, gender stereotypes regarding MSE, and attitudes toward MSE on an implicit, nonconscious level. Results indicated that women showed less implicit identijication with MSE than did men, and that men showed stronger implicit stereotypes about MSE being "male"fields. Surprisingly, although men and women held negative implicit attitudes toward MSE, thqr did not differ significantly from each other in th& implicit MSE attitudes. These results may have implications for better understanding women's persisten@ in MSE.