As researchers investigate why female students are almost twice as likely to participate in a study abroad program than male students are, Ohio University continues to reflect the trend despite what university officials call gender neutral programming.
About 60 percent of OU students who studied abroad in the 2007-08 school year were female - 510 of 854 total students - according to an internal study abroad report.
Pressure from faculty and parents to study abroad resonates more firmly with female students, according to a study on students' intent to study abroad conducted by the Association for the Study of Higher Education.
Researchers spoke to 2,800 students at 19 four-year and two-year colleges and universities shortly after the students began their freshman year. Students were asked about their intent to study abroad and how heavily certain factors influenced that intent. Researchers asked the same questions again at the end of the students' sophomore year.
I know for our program
there were about 19 students total and about four of them were guys said Kate Williamson, a senior who traveled to Toledo, Spain last year. I really can't think of a specific reason (for more girls studying abroad than guys) other than (maybe) guys are more focused on graduating and on getting a job than studying abroad.
Some male students do study abroad. Mike Harper, a senior studying Spanish and criminology, is studying in Mexico for this quarter.
I just (really) wanted to meet new people and expand my horizons he said.
OU tries to market its travel abroad programs to both men and women, despite the glaring gender discrepancies in some of the programs.
We try to be gender neutral in a program that is mostly female
said Catherine Marshall, the director of Education Abroad, adding that the office tries to use pictures representing a wide variety of students in advertisements.
Though she acknowledged that some geographical locations might appeal more to one sex, Marshall said OU does not keep location-specific data.
I think that there might be some locations where you see more males than females; it also depends on the year. ... I don't really have an answer to who goes where and when and why
she said.
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