PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Serena Canaan
AU  - Pierre Mouganie
TI  - The Impact of Advisor Gender on Female Students’ STEM Enrollment and Persistence
AID  - 10.3368/jhr.58.4.0320-10796R2
DP  - 2021 Feb 10
TA  - Journal of Human Resources
PG  - 0320-10796R2
4099  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2021/02/03/jhr.58.4.0320-10796R2.short
4100  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2021/02/03/jhr.58.4.0320-10796R2.full
AB  - To reduce the gender gap in science fields, policymakers often propose providing women with mentoring by female scientists. However, there is no clear evidence on whether one-on-one mentor gender influences women’s STEM participation. We exploit a unique setting where students are randomly assigned to academic advisors—who are also faculty members—in their freshman year of college. Advisors help students select courses and decide on a major. We find that having a female rather than a male science advisor substantially increases the likelihood that women enroll and graduate with STEM degrees. A non-science advisor’s gender has no impact on students’ major choice.