Women’s underrepresentation in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields is well established; however, there is much variation in women’s among STEM fields. Women received 60% of bachelor’s degrees in biology but only 18% of computer science degrees in 2009. One explanation for this difference may be social stereotypes of the fields. Male-dominated STEM fields are stereotyped as asocial, which may lead women to think that these fields will not give them opportunities to work with and help others. Three studies examined how communal goals, goals related to creating and maintaining interpersonal relationships, relate to interest in STEM fields. Study 1 (N = 120) found that women were more likely than men to endorse communal goals. Additionally, women were more interested in STEM classes they thought would fulfill their communal goals. Participants’ communal goal endorsement was negatively correlated with their interest in male-dominated STEM fields, like computer science. Study 2 (N = 296) examined group work as a potential factor that could affect perceptions of communal fulfillment in science classes. Classes with group work were perceived to be higher in communal goal fulfillment. Male-dominated STEM fields were perceived to have less group work than female-dominated STEM fields. Additionally, preference for group work was positively correlated with communal goals. Study 3 (N = 91) experimentally manipulated the collaboration policy of a computer science class syllabus, testing for changes in communal goal fulfillment and interest. The class with a pro-collaboration policy was perceived as having the most communal goal fulfillment, but these perceptions did not carry over to perceptions of the field of computer science as a whole. These studies suggest that increasing opportunities for communal experiences in computer science may help women to feel that computer science would fulfill their goals, increasing their interest in the field.
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