Does Faculty Gender Composition Matter for Retaining Students in Their Major After College Graduation?

There is a widely held belief that female faculty serve as valuable role models for female students, yet prior research reports mixed effects on academic and labor market outcomes. This study examines whether the proportion of female faculty within undergraduate major programs influences graduates’ likelihood of remaining in their field – through either postgraduate study or field-related employment – using nationally representative data from South Korea. Results indicate that a higher female faculty share is associated with a lower probability of pursuing graduate education for both men and women. However, female faculty representation significantly increases the likelihood that women, but not men, remain in their undergraduate field. Effects are highly discipline-specific, with positive associations in education, engineering, and biology/food science, but negative ones in medicine/pharmacy. These findings suggest that female faculty can strengthen women’s post-graduation field alignment, yet the influence varies substantially across disciplines. The results highlight the need for field-targeted policies to promote gender equity in academia, recognizing that the role-model effect may be context-dependent and, in some cases, countervailing.