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100 _aDavidovitz, Maayan and Cinamon, Rachel Gali
_954166
245 _aLack of gender representation in academia: The experiences of female STEM students
260 _aThe American Review of Public Administration
300 _a 55(1), Jan, 2025: p.84-96
520 _aStudies of representative bureaucracy emphasize that minorities’ representation in public organizations helps promote their interests. Some areas, however, suffer from a distinct lack of minority representation. Although studies in the field focus on the actions of minority public servants in representing citizens like them, we examine the behavior of majority group street-level bureaucrats toward minorities. Using interviews with female STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) students from five Israeli academic institutions, we investigate whether male faculty members’ interactions with female students reflect their perceptions of the latter's lack of representation. We find that one direct outcome is that male faculty members’ unequal and discriminatory behavior offends female students. Through this behavior, these faculty members also signal to the majority group students that this behavior toward women is legitimate, which is an indirect outcome. Finally, female students behave insecurely in this environment. Public managers should be aware that not only is passive representation required in public organizations, but also that in areas with distinct male representation, majority group street-level bureaucrats play an important role in creating an environment that is fair and equitable for minorities.- Reproduced https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/02750740241267918
650 _a Representative bureaucracy, Lack of representation, Gender representation, STEM students, street-level bureaucracy.
_954167
773 _aThe American Review of Public Administration
942 _cAR