Do Same-Gender Instructors Help Retain STEM Students Minoritized in the Classroom?

• In Event: Postsecondary Pathways for Students in STEM Majors

Abstract

Using administrative data from a large public Minority-Serving Institution, we estimate multinomial logistic regression models to explore interactions of student gender, faculty gender, and classroom gender composition on the probability that a STEM-interested student declares a pSTEM (physical sciences, computer science, engineering, or math), biology, or non-STEM major by their fifth semester of enrollment. We find little evidence that women students’ persistence in pSTEM majors is affected by their instructor’s gender. However, Hispanic men and women students’ major declarations are affected by their classroom gender composition. Hispanic male students who experience majority-female STEM classrooms—thus, doubly minoritized—are less likely to declare pSTEM majors. Having a male faculty instructor helps to offset this effect.

Authors

• Margaret Blume-Kohout, Gettysburg College

• Benjamin Durham, Gettysburg College