Unpacking Gender Differences in Leadership Aspirations Among Resilient College Students

• In Event: Sociocultural Influences on Learning, Leadership, and Friendships

Abstract

Drawing on longitudinal data covering three years of college among a diverse sample of resilient college students (N=370) attending one of 264 four-year colleges or universities across the U.S., the study offers new empirical evidence of the pervasive disadvantages female-identified college students face in developing aspirations for leadership. Results indicate that not only do female students enter college significantly below their male counterparts in leadership aspirations, once in college, those disadvantages expand through smaller developmental gains. Those disadvantages are partially, but not fully, offset by aspects of the college experience and characteristics of students’ institutional environments; the most notable of these include one’s major field of study and sense of campus belonging.

Authors

• Gregory C. Wolniak, University of Georgia

• Emily Chen-Bendle, University of Georgia

• Jennifer L. Tackett, Northwestern University