Ph.D. in Leadership & Organization Studies Dissertation Proposal Defense: Sarah Kostanski 4/3

03/10/2025
By Sarah Kostanski

The Department of Leadership/Organization Studies at the Manning School of Business invites you to attend a doctoral dissertation proposal by Sarah Kostanski on “How gender representation shapes women’s experiences, perceptions, and behaviors: An inductive comparison of two engineering sub-fields.”

Date: Thursday, April 3, 2025
Time: 2-3:30 p.m.
Location: Virtual Zoom link

Thesis/Dissertation Title: How gender representation shapes women’s experiences, perceptions, and behaviors: An inductive comparison of two engineering sub-fields

Committee Members
1) Elana Feldman (Chair), Ph.D., Department of Leadership/Organization Studies, Manning School of Business, UMass Lowell
2) Beth Humberd, Ph.D., Department of Leadership/Organization Studies, Manning School of Business, UMass Lowell
3) Kathleen McGinn, Ph.D., Baker Foundation Professor, Harvard Business School

Abstract:
Building from and contributing to the literatures on gendered occupations, my dissertation proposal will be driven by the following research question: How do differences in gender representation shape the experiences, perceptions, and behaviors of women? Existing research largely focuses on what drives gaps in gender representation, whereas there is little scholarship on whether or how gender representation differences influence the experiences, perceptions, and behaviors of women. My proposal seeks to build on this small literature, by comparing two sub-fields of a historically men-majority occupation that have varied gender representation (i.e., different proportions of men and women) – bioengineering and mechanical engineering – but which share many of the same other characteristics (e.g., skills, knowledge, activities). My study will compare these two sub-fields – using interviews with women and men in the sub-fields, those who have left the sub-fields, and sub-field experts – to understand women’s experiences, perceptions, and behaviors. This study will provide a more nuanced understanding of whether differences in representation (but where women are still the minority) make a difference in terms of people’s experiences. Furthermore, this research can potentially provide further insight into well-documented retention issues among women in men-majority occupations.

All interested students and faculty members are invited to attend.