In January 2005, then-President Lawrence Summers of Harvard University cited gender differences as a reason why men dominate math and science fields.

His statements created controversy and led to his eventual resignation, but the question remained as to why men are traditionally associated with some fields and women with others.

Administrators at Syracuse University said the reason is cultural – while there are differences between the genders, males and females are raised believing certain professional fields are acceptable for one gender before the other.

‘Men and women have different learning styles,’ said Sue Corieri, director of enrollment management for the School of Information Studies. ‘But it’s not a quality issue; it’s not better or worse.’

The two most popular undergraduate fields for both genders are business and the social sciences, according to a 2005 study by the National Center for Education Statistics.

Engineering and information sciences are very popular among men, while education and health-related sciences are popular among women, the report stated.

At SU, student enrollment in these fields reflects cultural norms, but recent statistics show a trend towards gender equality, which administrators said is the result of both changes in the greater society and efforts made by the university.

Nationally, engineering schools average 12 to 13 percent women, said Associate Dean Can Isik of the L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science.

In 2005, however, 16 percent of graduates from ECS were women, according to a report released by the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment.

But simply being above the national average isn’t satisfactory, Isik said.

ECS hosts events such as ‘Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day’ every year, and encourages women to take math and science classes in local high schools, said Kathleen Joyce, admissions director for ECS.

Many women aren’t drawn to engineering until they are already at SU, Isik said.

‘To even get (females) to think about engineering is a high school advising issue,’ he said.

This year’s ECS incoming class is about 20 percent women, Isik said. That figure is expected to increase before graduation because of the current retention rates among men and women.

Thirty-four percent of the students enrolled in IST are women, according to an Information Studies report. This year’s freshman class is 41 percent female.

IST tries to hire a balanced faculty to create a welcoming environment for female students, Corieri said.

Clubs such as Women in Technology promote interest in the community by planning days to bring females on tours of the college, said club President Fatima Espinoza, a second-year graduate student in information management.

On a recent trip to New York City, Corieri said she only had enough time for one recruiting visit and chose an all female school.

Any time there is an underrepresented population, the IST admissions office puts additional effort into attracting members of that population, she said.

‘If we weren’t sensitive to that, then we wouldn’t be effectively influencing the profession,’ Corieri said.

In other cases, society seems to be challenging the gender bias on its own.

The number of men interested in teaching is increasing, especially in elementary education, said Laurie Deyo, admissions coordinator at the School of Education.

But in 2005, only 17 percent of graduates were men, according the OIRA report.

‘Traditionally, education has been a gendered field,’ said Dean Douglas Biklen. ‘The culture has, in effect, said ‘this is women’s work.”

Incoming classes have increased from 16 to 20 percent men in the past three years, according to a report from SOE.

‘Families are letting go a little bit more,’ Deyo said. Parents are more accepting of their son becoming a teacher, and the societal stigma is fading, he said.

Many high schools have introduced programs where students can become part of the elementary teaching process, she said. This gets men thinking about education at a younger age.

Men who want to teach aren’t being laughed at anymore, Deyo said.

Fields in the College of Human Services and Health Professions are subject to the traditional association of women within the domestic sphere, said HSHP Dean Diane Murphy.

Currently, the notion is being challenged by the fact that more women are entering the workplace, Murphy said. This disrupts the traditional gender roles and makes formerly domestic duties, such as childcare, professional.

Some HSHP fields, especially sports management, are relatively new, and not necessarily subject to traditional inequality, Murphy said.

While enrollment in HSHP is 82 percent women, according to a report, the sports management program is about 70 percent men and hospitality management is balanced, she said.

One problem is men rise to the top of non-traditional professions faster than women do, Murphy said. This contradicts the cultural perception that women are more adept at these roles.

The NCES study showed one year after receiving a bachelor’s degree, men’s average salaries are greater than women’s, regardless of the field.

‘Starting salary – that’s a serious issue,’ Corieri said. ‘You’re kind of on a level playing field, you’d think.’

In business, these figures relate to the concept of the glass ceiling, which meant women couldn’t rise above a certain level in management, said Clint Tankersley, associate dean of undergraduate programs at the Whitman School of Management.

The glass ceiling has been disappearing in the past 10 years, Tankersley said. He cited Carly Fiorina, the former president and CEO of Hewlett-Packard.

Female students also hold leadership positions in many of Whitman’s student groups, he said. In fact, the presidents of nine undergraduate groups within the school are women, according to a pamphlet at the visitor center.

Study results of the starting salaries of graduates with bachelor’s degrees in other fields were flawed, however, according to Isik and others.

The study grouped engineering, math and the hard sciences to show that men in these fields make on average about $10,000 more than women one year after graduation.

However, men are more concentrated than women in engineering when compared to math and the sciences, and engineering jobs tend to pay more, Isik said.

Pay differences for men and women who have a bachelor’s degree in history are unreliable because those people are typically not working in the historical fields, said Craige Champion, chair of the history department.

Business and the social sciences, fields that are popular among men and women at the national level, are similar at SU, but still show a slight male dominance.

Numbers of women interested in management were high in the ’80s, dropped in the ’90s and are increasing again, said Russell Hamilton, associate dean of undergraduate recruiting at Whitman.

Currently, it seems businesses are extremely interested in women, he said. As a result, women are interested in pursuing business.

As far as gender and enrollment are concerned, the numbers are going in the right direction, Tankersley said. And Whitman is not interfering.

In 2005 at SU, 52 percent of graduates in the social sciences were women. The majors included in this category are anthropology, economics, geography, international relations, political science and sociology.

Adding history to that group brings the number to exactly 50 percent each for men and women who graduated from SU in 2005.

The strong male bias in history is because classes still focus primarily on politics and warfare, Champion said. One of the most popular classes in the program is military history, which attracts a large amount of men.

‘History – until a century ago, men shaped it,’ he said.

The attraction of history for men has affected the faculty as well, Champion said. Only six of the 22 professors in his department are women, and female professors are in such high demand that competing schools often give them better offers.

Cultural notions of gender roles in other fields, such as education, human services and management, seem to be changing and moving towards more balance between the sexes.

The conclusions of SU faculty show notions of male and female professions are determined by culture.

‘Inclinations about naturalized interest are socially contrived,’ Murphy said.

Published on December 2, 2006 at 12:00 pm