Gender in higher education

• Grant number: 17/23593-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: May 01, 2018
• End date: March 01, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Economics
• Principal Investigator: Fernanda Gonçalves de La Fuente Estevan
• Grantee: Bruna Pugialli da Silva Borges
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Economia, Administração e Contabilidade (FEA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 19/07424-7 - Women in Economics: Effects of a same-gender professor on students' educational outcomes and career choice, BE.EP.DR

Abstract

Despite having surpassed men in the access to higher education, women remain underrepresented in math-intensive fields. For instance, at University of São Paulo, the share of women applying for Economics major is small as well as the share of female faculty members teaching undergraduate students. The underrepresentation of female faculty may influence per se female students' performance and interests, by limiting the availability of role models for female students. In this PhD thesis, we will analyze whether having a higher share of female faculty members affects female students' performance and career choice. Our study will use administrative data from the Department of Economics at University of São Paulo, containing information on students, teachers, and courses characteristics. We combine this data with information on students that applied for a master in Economics and data from the Brazilian formal labor market. We believe that this PhD thesis will contribute to the literature in several ways. First, the richness of our panel data allows us to overcome typical problems found in the previous literature, enabling us to follow each student several years after he applied for Economics major and to recover which faculty members taught each course the student enrolled during the major. In addition, we exploit the random assignment of student to classes in the first semester, which allows us to address threats to internal validity, such as self-selection of students into courses or professors. Thus, our study will contribute to the understanding of the impact of gender role models on higher education performance and interest for graduate studies, and to public policies aimed at reducing underrepresentation of female students and faculty members in math-oriented fields. (AU)

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

BORGES, Bruna Pugialli da Silva. Gender in higher education. 2021. Doctoral Thesis - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Economia, Administração e Contabilidade (FEA/SBD) São Paulo.