The Effects of a Female Role Model on Academic Performance and Persistence of Women in STEM Courses

Herrmann, Sarah D.; Adelman, Robert M.; Bodford, Jessica E.; Graudejus, Oliver; Okun, Morris A.; Kwan, Virginia S. Y.

doi:10.1080/01973533.2016.1209757

Cited by 195 publications

(162 citation statements)

References 85 publications

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“…Leavey (2016) reports that women in STEM prefer to have women mentors but do not differ in types of mentoring needed compared with male peers. This supports research conducted by Shin, Levy, and London (2016) where women reported an increase in perceived fit in STEM after reading biographies of successful STEM role models who were also women and findings from Herrmann et al (2016) where women were more likely to persist in STEM courses after reading letters of encouragement from women role models. Aside from traditional one-onone mentoring programs (Carpi et al 2017), there are also successful mentoring groups specifically for minority groups (Katz et al 2017;Snead-McDaniel 2010), and communal mentors (Fuesting and Diekman 2017).…”

Section: Learning Communitiessupporting

confidence: 74%

The Status of Women in STEM in Higher Education: A Review of the Literature 2007–2017

Blackburn

2017

Science & Technology Libraries

247

155

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Increased efforts to diversify science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education in the United States have drastically increased the number of studies offering insight into the experiences of women in STEM programs in higher education. This paper presents a thematic review of the literature regarding their status from 2007 to 2017 including journals, trade magazines, theses, and dissertations. It focuses on areas of recruitment, retention, barriers, and faculty issues. Stereotypes, biases, campus culture, classroom experiences, identity, and sense of belonging are also explored. The author additionally identifies gaps and suggests related areas for new research as well as implications for librarians.

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Section: Learning Communitiessupporting

confidence: 74%

The Status of Women in STEM in Higher Education: A Review of the Literature 2007–2017

Blackburn

2017

Science & Technology Libraries

247

155

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“…Indeed, even a 1 h interaction with a female role model in STEM increases the probability that Grade 12 students in France will enroll in a selective male-dominated STEM class by up to 30% (Breda et al, 2018). And a single letter from a female role model can improves course grades and reduces dropout among U.S. introductory psychology and chemistry students (Herrmann et al, 2016).…”

Section: Changing Individual-level Gender Biasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics: Issues, Causes, Solutions

2019

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The landscape of gender in education and the workforce has shifted over the past decades: women have made gains in representation, equitable pay, and recognition through awards, grants, and publications. Despite overall change, differences persist in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). This Viewpoints article on gender disparities in STEM offers an overarching perspective by addressing what the issues are, why the issues may emerge, and how the issues may be solved. In Part 1, recent data on gaps in representation, compensation, and recognition (awards, grants, publications) are reviewed, highlighting differences across subfields (e.g., computer science vs biology) and across career trajectories (e.g., bachelor's degrees vs senior faculty). In Part 2, evidence on leading explanations for these gaps, including explanations centered on abilities, preferences, and explicit and implicit bias, is presented. Particular attention is paid to implicit bias: mental processes that exist largely outside of conscious awareness and control in both male and female perceivers and female targets themselves. Given its prevalence and persistence, implicit bias warrants a central focus for research and application. Finally, in Part 3, the current knowledge is presented on interventions to change individuals' beliefs and behaviors, as well as organizational culture and practices. The moral issues surrounding equal access aside, understanding and addressing the complex issues surrounding gender in STEM are important because of the possible benefits to STEM and society that will be realized only when full participation of all capable and qualified individuals is guaranteed.

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“…Here, we argue that to support the retention of faculty from marginalized groups at the professor level, universities should provide trainees with a visual representation of themselves as successful scientists. Recent studies have shown that women in STEM benefit from women role models through improved belonging and self-efficacy (19,20). Predictably, a lack of active inclusion also decreases self-efficacy in URMs, which can result in decreased feelings of belonging (21).…”

Section: Suggestions For Improving Invited Speaker Diversity To Reflementioning

confidence: 99%

Suggestions for Improving Invited Speaker Diversity To Reflect Trainee Diversity

Hagan

Pollet

Libertucci

2020

J Microbiol Biol Educ.

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Within the field of biomedical research in the United States, the proportion of underrepresented minorities at the Full Professor level has remained consistently low, even though trainee demographics are becoming more diverse. Underrepresented groups face a complex set of barriers to achieving faculty status, including imposter syndrome, increased performance expectations, and patterns of exclusion. Institutionalized racism and sexism have contributed to these barriers and perpetuated policy that excludes underrepresented minorities. These barriers can contribute to decreased feelings of belonging, which may result in decreased retention of underrepresented minorities. Though some universities have altered their hiring practices to increase the number of underrepresented minorities in the applicant pool, these changes have not been sufficient. Here we argue that departmental invited seminar series can be used to provide trainees with scientific role models and increase their sense of belonging while institutions work towards more inclusive policy. In this study, we investigated the demographics (gender and race) of invited seminar speakers over 5 years to the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Michigan. We also investigated current trainee demographics and compared them to invited speaker demographics to gauge if our trainees were being provided with representation of themselves. We found that invited speaker demographics were skewed towards Caucasian men, and our trainee demographics were not being represented. From these findings, we proposed policy change within the department to address how speakers are being invited with the goal of increasing speaker diversity to better reflect trainee diversity. To facilitate this process, we developed a set of suggestions and a web-based resource that allows scientists, committees, and moderators to identify members of underserved groups. These resources can be easily adapted by other fields or subfields to promote inclusion and diversity at seminar series, conferences, and colloquia.

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The Effects of a Female Role Model on Academic Performance and Persistence of Women in STEM Courses

Cited by 195 publications

References 85 publications

The Status of Women in STEM in Higher Education: A Review of the Literature 2007–2017

The Status of Women in STEM in Higher Education: A Review of the Literature 2007–2017

Gender in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics: Issues, Causes, Solutions

Suggestions for Improving Invited Speaker Diversity To Reflect Trainee Diversity

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