Life Goals & Gender Roles

We are a team of interdisciplinary researchers who are interested in exploring and understanding factors that impact an individual's pursuit of STEM careers. College women may abandon STEM majors at a greater rate than men because they believe that the pursuit of a STEM career conflicts with achieving other life goals. Few studies have investigated how the importance placed on specific life goals affects college major or career choices.  We view changes in gender roles and life goals through the framework of “emerging adulthood” and expect changes in life goals to be systematically related to changes in college majors and career interest.