Self-efficacy is an aspect of students' motivation that has been shown to play a critical role in students' engagement, participation, and retention in academic careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Since women are underrepresented in STEM domains such as physics, we studied female and male students' self-efficacy…

Self-efficacy can affect performance, career goals, and persistence. Prior studies show that female students have lower self-efficacy than male students in various science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) domains, and the self-efficacy gap is a factor that contributes to the low representation of female students in STEM. However,…

Students' intentions to persevere and their career choices in science, technology, engineering, and math fields can be impacted by their physics identities. Women are severely underrepresented at all levels in physics and engineering. Physics in particular has stereotypes about being a discipline for brilliant men. Therefore, it is particularly…