Mentoring and coping self-efficacy as predictors of affective occupational commitment for women in STEM

Abstract

PurposeDespite an evident increase in the number of women joining Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) majors at universities, the recruitment and retainment of women in STEM occupations continue to be a substantial challenge. The aim of this research is to investigate several individual and contextual factors that could increase the representation of women in STEM fields.Design/methodology/approachThe authors report the results of a questionnaire survey of women (n = 375) working in STEM industries in the Middle East and North Africa region who have or had a mentor during their careers. Structural equation modelling is used to examine the proposed hypotheses.FindingsThe results indicate that both mentoring and coping self-efficacy positively influence affective occupational commitment. Coping self-efficacy is also found to partially mediate the relationship between mentoring and affective occupational commitment.Practical implicationsThe authors recommend that researchers and practitioners give more attention to the contextual factors such as mentoring and its contribution to the coping self-efficacy and affective occupational commitment of employees in STEM occupations.Originality/valueIn this study, the authors investigate individual and contextual factors that have potential to enhance women's occupational commitment in STEM industries based on the Career Self-Management Model.