Examining Gender Differences in a Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science Curriculum

Women are severely underrepresented in many engineering majors, e.g., Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science (MEMS). Here, we investigate gender differences in the predictive relationship between students' high school GPA and foundational mathematics, science, and engineering courses in the first two years of an undergraduate MEMS curriculum using ten years of institutional data. We use multi-group Structural Equation Modeling to analyze the strength of these predictive relationships and gender differences both in these relationships and in course grades. We find a strong predictive pathway from high school GPA to overall first-year performance to advanced mathematics courses and finally to second-year MEMS courses. Further, women's higher average high school GPA than men is consistent with higher grades in all first-year courses except physics. The underperformance of women majoring in MEMS in physics compared to what is predicted based upon their high school GPA may be a sign of inequitable and non-inclusive learning environment in physics courses and is consistent with the low self-efficacy of women in physics throughout their engineering major in our prior research. These findings can be useful in engaging physics departments to focus on equity and inclusion and devise strategies to improve the learning environment so that female engineering students do not underperform compared to what is predicted based upon their high school GPA.