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Male students who had sisters in science, engineering or math were also more
likely to perceive as problematic all three areas: societal attitudes toward women in
science, engineering and math; the conflict between feminine qualities and science,
engineering or math; and the conflict between family and career responsibilities (Table
IIG-4).
Males’ Experiences at Rowan and their Perception of Problems for Women in SEM
To explore whether exposure to female role models in engineering at Rowan are
related to the perception of problems for women in SEM, we looked at the number of
female instructors the student had over the course of the academic year. While this is a
very rough approximation of exposure to female role models, since students may have
had exposure to female instructors in previous semesters, we felt it would give a handle
on how much students might be exposed to women’s issues in SEM. We can see that the
more female instructors a male student has, they are slightly more likely to perceive
problems for women in terms of societal attitudes or feminine qualities conflicting with
their career (Table IIG-5). However, they were less likely to see the conflict between
family and career as a problem for women, presumably because they were exposed to
women who were managing such conflicts acceptably.
IIG-248