Gender, Gender Roles and Academic Success in Diverse College Students

Author

Noelle RoweFollow

Degree Type

Honors Capstone Project

Date of Submission

Winter 12-1-2018

Capstone Advisor

Matthew Mulvaney

Honors Reader

Chandice Haste-Jackson

Capstone Major

Human Development and Family Science

Capstone College

Sport and Human Dynamics

Audio/Visual Component

no

Capstone Prize Winner

no

Won Capstone Funding

no

Honors Categories

Professional

Subject Categories

Medical Humanities | Other Medicine and Health Sciences | Other Sociology

Abstract

More than ever before, college serves as an important entity to further an individual’s personal and professional goals. An interesting pattern has emerged: women are outpacing men in college enrollment, as well as in degree attainment. Hegemonic masculinity serves as one of many theories to explain this gender gap. Additionally, little research has focused on the topic of hegemonic masculinity exhibited by men of color. Thus, this study had three purposes: to understand the academic behavior and achievement of racially diverse college students, understand how hegemonic masculinity contributes to decreased academic achievement among males, and how hegemonic masculinity differs across racial groups. Utilizing the online survey software Qualtrics, 116 undergraduate students (approximately 64% White and 81% female) participated in this study. The mean age of participants was 20.34 (SD=3.78). Participants responded to items relating to demographics, academic behavior, and gender role ideology. It was found that Black and White female students had higher GPAs than their male counterparts. Black male students displayed high conformity to hegemonic masculine ideals, while engaging in higher rates of academic help-seeking behavior than White male students. This illustrates the double bind that many young men find them in. Lastly, it was found that there was a fairly strong positive relationship between hegemonic masculinity and amotivation. The results of this study are intended to aid in the development of initiatives to assist academic and career counselors to best serve college students of diverse backgrounds.

Recommended Citation

Rowe, Noelle, "Gender, Gender Roles and Academic Success in Diverse College Students" (2018). Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All. 1089.
https://surface.syr.edu/honors_capstone/1089

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License