Training the Scientists and Engineers of Tomorrow: A Person‐Situation Approach1

The United States may face a shortage of well‐trained scientists and engineers in the near future. This prospective study examined the issue of women's low rates of participation in these fields from a Person × Situation perspective, focusing on the early years of graduate school. Although men and women were similar in many respects (e.g., in Graduate Record Exam scores and grades), women evaluated their abilities related to intelligence lower than did men. There were no gender differences in students’perceptions of the academic climate. Longitudinal analyses revealed that students’ self‐evaluations and gender moderated the effects of perceived supportiveness of their academic departments on changes in well‐being from the end of their first year to the end of their second year.