PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Canaan, Serena AU - Mouganie, Pierre TI - The Impact of Advisor Gender on Female Students’ STEM Enrollment and Persistence AID - 10.3368/jhr.58.4.0320-10796R2 DP - 2023 Mar 01 TA - Journal of Human Resources PG - 593--632 VI - 58 IP - 2 4099 - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/58/2/593.short 4100 - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/58/2/593.full SO - J Hum Resour2023 Mar 01; 58 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 nonscience advisor’s gender has no impact on students’ major choice.