Reasons undergraduate students majored in geology across six universities: The importance of gender and department

Abstract

Only 40% of geoscience undergraduate degrees are conferred on women. Little research has examined why more men tend to pursue and persist in geology degrees compared to women. We examined the reasons why undergraduate geology students chose to major in geology, with a particular emphasis on women. We collected data from 391 undergraduate students (46.4% women) enrolled in six geology departments at public, four-year institutions across the United States. Students reported six reasons they were attracted to geology: interest, career opportunities, liking the outdoors, liking the department, being encouraged by someone, and other. Interest was the most frequent reason female and male students reported for being attracted to geology. After interest, liking the geology department (including liking classes, faculty, and the department overall) was the next most frequent reason female students reported for selecting a geology major. It was the second to least frequent reason for male students. Both female and male students in departments graduating a higher percentage of women more frequently reported liking the department as a reason for being attracted to geology than did students in departments graduating lower percentages of women. Geology departments have the potential to impact the recruitment and retention of students, particularly women, into their programs. Future research is needed to identify the specific department practices that attract female students and provide a more welcoming climate to students.

Keywords:

• Gender
• recruitment
• diversity
• undergraduate student

Acknowledgments

We sincerely thank the six departments who welcomed this study into their academic communities. We thank Brandy Lynch for assisting with data analysis and Dale Baker, Heather Houlton, Kerry Englert, several anonymous reviewers, and editors for input on improving this article.

Additional information

Funding

This study is based on work partially funded by the National Science Foundation Gender in Science and Engineering program, grants HRD 1136233 and HRD 1136238.