TY - JOUR
T1 - Psychometric reevaluation of the Women in Science Scale (WiSS)
AU - Owen, Steven V.
AU - Toepperwein, Mary Anne
AU - Pruski, Linda A.
AU - Blalock, Cheryl L.
AU - Liu, Yan
AU - Marshall, Carolyn E.
AU - Lichtenstein, Michael J.
PY - 2007/12
Y1 - 2007/12
N2 - The Women in Science Scale (WiSS) was first developed in 1984, and is still being used in contemporary studies, yet its psychometric properties have not been evaluated with current statistical methods. In this study, the WiSS was administered in its original 27-item form to 1,439 middle and high school students. Confirmatory factor analysis based upon the original description of the WiSS was modestly supportive of the proposed three-factor structure, but the claimed dimensions showed substantial redundancy. Therefore, we split our sample and performed exploratory factor analyses on one half. The most satisfactory solution, a two-factor model, was then applied to the crossvalidation sample with a confirmatory factor analysis. This two-factor structure was supported with a total of 14 items. Factor 1, Equality, contains eight items, and factor 2, Sexism, six items. Although our data are limited to adolescents, the WiSS, with improved psychometric properties, may be used descriptively to assess attitudes toward women in science and with additional stability and repeatability testing, may be used in evaluation research. The shortened WiSS should result in shorter administration time, fewer missing data, and increased acceptance among survey administrators in classroom settings.
AB - The Women in Science Scale (WiSS) was first developed in 1984, and is still being used in contemporary studies, yet its psychometric properties have not been evaluated with current statistical methods. In this study, the WiSS was administered in its original 27-item form to 1,439 middle and high school students. Confirmatory factor analysis based upon the original description of the WiSS was modestly supportive of the proposed three-factor structure, but the claimed dimensions showed substantial redundancy. Therefore, we split our sample and performed exploratory factor analyses on one half. The most satisfactory solution, a two-factor model, was then applied to the crossvalidation sample with a confirmatory factor analysis. This two-factor structure was supported with a total of 14 items. Factor 1, Equality, contains eight items, and factor 2, Sexism, six items. Although our data are limited to adolescents, the WiSS, with improved psychometric properties, may be used descriptively to assess attitudes toward women in science and with additional stability and repeatability testing, may be used in evaluation research. The shortened WiSS should result in shorter administration time, fewer missing data, and increased acceptance among survey administrators in classroom settings.
KW - Evaluation and theory
KW - Gender/equity
KW - General science
KW - Secondary
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U2 - 10.1002/tea.20187
DO - 10.1002/tea.20187
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:37649023517
SN - 0022-4308
VL - 44
SP - 1461
EP - 1478
JO - Journal of Research in Science Teaching
JF - Journal of Research in Science Teaching
IS - 10
ER -