Assessing the Impact of Counterfactual Thinking on the Career Motivation of Women Engineers

Through an exploratory sequential mixed methods design using Q methodology, this work-in-progress Student Poster Paper explores one strategy by assessing the impact of counterfactual thinking, thoughts about what might have been, on the future motivation and decisions of women engineers in their early career. Within ten years of graduation, 54% of women who obtained engineering bachelor's degrees in the U.S. either left or never entered the field. During this time in their early career, women are experiencing gender-based challenges such as gender bias, discrimination, harassment, and work-life compromises. It is important to provide women with strategies for overcoming these challenges and persisting in their engineering careers.