Male and Female Minorities in Gendered Majors: Navigating Gender Roles
Within the ongoing debate of gender inequality, education is a hot topic. It has been seen time and time again that oppression of women persists when they are refused access to education and their progress is hindered when they fall behind men academically. However, “the rise of women” has brought about an increase of advancements for women in college enrollment and degree attainment. Within the United States, women are now just as likely as men to succeed in higher education and the gender gap has decreased immensely if not been eliminated completely. This is incredible news but unfortunately there is a catch.
As a part of a research team lead by Sociology professor, Dr. Ben Gibbs, Martha is conducting analyses of 26 face-to-face interviews with BYU students on the topic of gender and higher education. 21 out of the 26 of these interviews involved women in predominantly male majors (namely science, technology, engineering, and mathematical fields) and men in predominantly female majors (namely English, family studies, other social sciences, etc). As part of her research titled “Male and Female Minorities in Gendered Majors: Navigating Gender Roles,” Martha is studying the conflict experienced by these individuals and how it has affected their choice of major. She’s asking the question: When an individual experiences gender role conflict, how are their education decisions and experiences effected? She will present her findings at the Women’s Studies capstone conference in early April. For more information please visit http://womensstudies.byu.edu/capstone/