Department of Biology, University of Nebraska at Kearney, Kearney, Nebraska, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2021 Dec 2;16(12):e0260646. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0260646. eCollection 2021.
The positive influence of undergraduate research and mentoring on student success in STEM fields has been well-established. However, the role that the gender of a research mentor may play in the undergraduate research experience warrants further investigation. This is an especially critical issue to address, since the lack of female role models in STEM fields is acknowledged as an impediment to the success and progress of women pursuing STEM-careers. To evaluate how the gender of undergraduate research mentors influences the research experience of students, we collected and analyzed surveys from undergraduates and alumni who had completed undergraduate research at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. We found that even though students did not select mentors based on gender, there were differences in how students perceived their mentors, depending on the gender of their mentors. Interestingly, students with female mentors were more likely than students with male mentors to report that their research experience had prepared them for a career in science. Further, our gender-pairing analyses revealed that students who expressed that the gender of their mentor had contributed to their relationship with their mentor were more likely to have a female mentor. Our data indicate that female mentors favorably influence the undergraduate research experience of both male and female students. Finally, our study reinforces the conclusions of previous studies demonstrating that undergraduate research and mentoring are beneficial for students. Overall, our findings support that, for students to fully benefit from their undergraduate research experience, undergraduate research opportunities for students should include an equitable representation of female mentors.
本科研究和指导对学生在 STEM 领域取得成功的积极影响已经得到充分证实。然而，研究导师的性别在本科生研究经历中可能扮演的角色值得进一步调查。这是一个特别关键的问题，因为缺乏 STEM 领域的女性榜样被认为是阻碍女性在 STEM 职业中取得成功和进步的一个因素。为了评估本科研究导师的性别如何影响学生的研究经历，我们收集并分析了在内布拉斯加大学科尔尼分校完成本科研究的本科生和校友的调查。我们发现，尽管学生没有根据性别选择导师，但学生对导师的看法存在差异，这取决于导师的性别。有趣的是，与有男性导师的学生相比，有女性导师的学生更有可能报告说，他们的研究经历使他们为从事科学事业做好了准备。此外，我们的性别配对分析表明，表达导师的性别对他们与导师关系有贡献的学生更有可能有女性导师。我们的数据表明，女性导师对男性和女性学生的本科研究经历都有积极的影响。最后，我们的研究强化了之前研究的结论，即本科研究和指导对学生是有益的。总的来说，我们的研究结果表明，为了让学生充分受益于他们的本科研究经历，学生的本科研究机会应该包括女性导师的公平代表。
