Gender-Based Differences in Perception of Experiences in Higher Education

Drew, Todd L.; Work, Gerald G.

doi:10.1080/00221546.1998.11775150

Cited by 23 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 6 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The research of Drew andWork (1998), Schuller et al (1999) and Heiman and Kariv (2002) has demonstrated differences in the social interactions and use of support networks between male and female degree students. Drew and Work (1998) utilized a sample of 6,078 male and 9,882 female students at US colleges and universities using the College Student Experiences Questionnaire (CSEQ: Pace, 1990). Among other findings it was noted that male students visited faculty members and instructors more often than female students on an informal basis, while female students visited more often to discuss specific course-related or personal issues.…”

Section: Abstract: Gender; Questionnaire; Higher Educationmentioning

confidence: 96%

Gender matters in higher education

Harrop

Tattersall

Goody

2007

Educational Studies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Much of the research in higher education has treated student bodies as homogeneous groups with a consequent neglect of any consideration of gender differences. To test the validity of such research a questionnaire was administered to 255 psychology students. The results showed some important differences in responses between the genders. In particular, the female students reported attaching more importance than males to pre-course aims, rated various learning activities as more valuable and interesting than males and reported more improvement in nine of the 12 skills surveyed than the males. The males rated experiencing less difficulty for various aspects of the course than anticipated than did the females for 11 of 12 potential difficulties listed. As a consequence, it is suggested that researchers ought to be wary of conducting research into various aspects of higher education without considering potential gender differences.In recent years, there has been considerable research into the motivations and expectations of students in higher education, and the ways in which they develop their skills and cope with the course demands. Most of this research has been concerned with groups of students, undifferentiated by gender-e.g. Jacobs and Newstead (2000) and Dornyei (2000) on student motivation; Rae and Baillie (2005) on peer tutoring; and Sutton and Henry (2005) on student approaches to learning. Moreover, academic institutions tend to conduct their course evaluations without regard to gender differences. The implication is that gender differences are unimportant and/ or negligible. It is as if gender doesn't matter in higher education.In the UK, the academic performance of females has been consistently higher than that of males at GCSE and A-level for a number of years. For the 2004/05 academic year, for example, female A-level students scored an average of 282.4 UCAS points compared to 263.6 for males (source: National Statistics, SRF45/2005). At degree level, while there is little difference between the genders on average, there has been a

show abstract

Section: Abstract: Gender; Questionnaire; Higher Educationmentioning

confidence: 96%

Gender matters in higher education

Harrop

Tattersall

Goody

2007

Educational Studies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…One result is that women engineering students' levels of academic self-confidence and self-esteem dip dramatically during their first year of college (Brainard & Carlin, 1998). In addition, women students are excluded too often from informal networking, mentoring relationships, and research opportunities (Drew & Work, 1998;Hall & Sandler, 1982). Also lacking in undergraduate and graduate women students' educational experiences are opportunities to interact with engineers who are working in the industrial workplace (those around colleges and universities are typically academic engineers).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electronic Communities: A Forum for Supporting Women Professionals and Students in Technical and Scientific Fields

Single

Muller

Cunningham

et al. 2000

J Women Minor Scien Eng

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this article, we report on electronic discussion lists (e-lists) sponsored by MentorNet, the National Electronic Industrial Mentoring Network for Women in Engineering and Science. Using the Internet, the MentorNet program connects students in engineering and science with mentors working in industry. These e-lists are a feature of MentorNet's larger electronic mentoring program and were sponsored to foster the establishment of community among women engineering and science students and men and women professionals in those fields. This research supports the hypothesis that electronic communications can be used to develop community among engineering and science students and professionals and identifies factors influencing the emergence of electronic communities (e-communities). The e-lists that emerged into self-sustaining ecommunities were focused on topic-based themes, such as balancing personal and work life, issues pertaining to women in engineering and science, and job searching. These e-communities were perceived to be safe places, embraced a diversity of opinions and experiences, and sanctioned personal and meaningful postings on the part of the participants. The e-communities maintained three to four simultaneous threaded discussions and were sustained by professionals who served as facilitators by seeding the e-lists with discussion topics.The e-lists were sponsored to provide women students participating in MentorNet with access to groups of technical and scientific professionals. In addition to providing benefits to the students, the elists also provided the professionals with opportunities to engage in peer mentoring with other, mostly female, technical and scientific professionals. We discuss the implications of our findings for developing e-communities and for serving the needs of women in technical and scientific fields. INTRODUCTIONElectronic communications are providing unprecedented opportunities for supporting and connecting women in technical and scientific fields. Electronic communications, particularly personal electronic mail (email) and email-based group discussion lists, have Copyright © by Begell House, Inc. Permission granted to post on web site: http://www.uvm.edu/~pbsingle 116 Peg Boyle Single et al. characteristics that foster the development of personal relationships on-line (Rheingold, 1993;Walther, 1996). The flexible communication environment permits people sharing similar interests to interact independent of time and location constraints (Steinberg, 1992). Electronic communications allow the communicators to think about and carefully craft messages. Furthermore, self-disclosure among strangers appears to emerge more readily than in face to face communications; these benefits seem to be heightened for members of minority groups or those on the fringe of an organization (Single & Muller, 1999b;Sproull & Kiesler, 1992;Winter & Huff, 1996).Programs are capitalizing on these characteristics of electronic communications to support and increase the representation of women students i...

show abstract

“…The hypothesis of a "chilly climate" for women in the classroom has been developed in the larger higher education literature [38][39][40] . Whitt's findings 40 indicate that female perceptions of gender-based discrimination exist on college campuses: e.g., 43% of students disagree or strongly disagree with the statement, "I have never observed discriminatory words, behaviors, or gestures directed towards female students" (p.166).…”

Section: The "Chilly Climate" For Women In Engineeringmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Whitt finds these perceptions are correlated to cognitive gains at least through the junior year in college 40 . However, not all studies support the chilly climate hypothesis, particularly those that do not explicitly question for discrimination, but instead compare male and female students for their responses to self-rating scales 27,38 .…”

Section: The "Chilly Climate" For Women In Engineeringmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Literature Review On The Underrepresentation Of Women In Undergraduate Engineering: Ability, Self Efficacy, And The "Chilly Climate"

Malicky¹

2003 Annual Conference Proceedings

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

and cultural barriers to enrollment and persistence among under-represented groups remain obscure or unaddressed, such programs cannot succeed" (Seymour 13 , p. 8). And there is an ethical dimension to the choice to focus on recruitment: while controversial, many studies show that the university SME environment is unfriendly, even hostile, to women engineers. Thus, is it ethical to recruit women into a field of study that they are likely to find discriminatory? Yet, representation will continue to be a problem if no recruitment efforts are performed. A resolution can be found in the manner of "recruitment" employed. If "recruitment" is done with a "push-in" approach-marketing SME to women and girls despite its differentially inhospitable environment-then those women may unduly suffer and the "pipeline" will develop "leaks." But if "recruitment" is thought of as a "pull-in"-changing the undergraduate SME environment so that it treats women fairly and is even attractive to them-then representation is increased without undue risk of suffering and "leaks." An engineering analogy applies: to increase the flow in a pipe, one could 1) apply more pressure to the supply side of the pipe or 2) increase the diameter of the pipe. The former results in excess stress on the medium, strain on the pipe, and leaks. The latter just results in more flow, though it does require a new pipe. The required changes to increase the women-friendliness of SME are considerably more complex than increasing the diameter of a pipe. Thus, the first step in improving representation is to understand the dimensions of women's experiences in the SME culture: social, cultural, academic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. There are a multitude of factors, forces, and structures associated with women's underrepresentation in undergraduate SME-more than can be covered in one literature review. This review examines three factors which are among the best understood and considered most important: ability, self-efficacy, and discrimination. To put these in context, a full literature review would also include these topics: expectations, enjoyment, contextualized knowledge, congruence, role-conflict, competition, group work, and support. The focus of this review is on the undergraduate years, though it provides a brief overview of pre-college factors to inform the undergraduate experience. This focus is not to downplay the importance of the pre-college, graduate school, faculty, or industry research literatures on WIE; these must be understood for an overall assessment of women's experiences in engineering. This review aims to stay as close to the actual research data as possible. Author's interpretations are given less weight than actual results. Whether null hypotheses are rejected or not rejected, those results are reported and incorporated with the other results for a particular topic. When factors are found to be significant, an attempt is made to quantify that factor in some way, either by the level of the difference or its correlation to another factor....

show abstract

Gender-Based Differences in Perception of Experiences in Higher Education

Cited by 23 publications

References 6 publications

Gender matters in higher education

Gender matters in higher education

Electronic Communities: A Forum for Supporting Women Professionals and Students in Technical and Scientific Fields

A Literature Review On The Underrepresentation Of Women In Undergraduate Engineering: Ability, Self Efficacy, And The "Chilly Climate"

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About