Online Program

Perspectives of Being a Female Student and Faculty in a Male-Dominated College (304984)

Keywords: STEM education, female faculty

Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology is a private undergraduate college in central Indiana which specializes in engineering, science, and mathematics. Currently, males compose approximately 75% of the student body and 60% of the faculty. As both an alumnae and tenure-track faculty of Rose-Hulman (a statistician in the mathematics department), I have a somewhat unique outlook on female life here. My perspectives include impressions of student life when I was an undergraduate and the female-male ratio was 1:4. Also, female students and faculty tend to have differing experiences at such an institution. Discussion centers on how this type of situation may be advantageous to future endeavors of females in STEM and in identifying areas where we can still work to improve the experiences.