Gender peer effect na Universidade Federal da Bahia: uma análise dos cursos de graduação durante 2006 a 2012

Abstract

This research aims to identify the effects of gender composition in classes in undergraduate courses at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA) from 2006 to 2012. In this sense, it seeks to analyze the impact of the proportion of women in cohorts on the academic performance of first semester students. The hypothesis to be tested is that the higher percentage of female students in the classes affects, in different intensity and direction, men and women. The main contribution of this work is centered on empirical estimates of the influence of women on their peers in academic environments culturally perceived as masculine. Furthermore, it dialogues with the international literature in order to understand cultural differences and their consequences on academic performance, with regard to the perception of gender roles and interaction of the sexes in a university context. The aggregated results for all courses were significant. Disaggregating the effect by major areas of knowledge, it was found that for area 1 (physical sciences, math and technology) the effect is positive for men, while for area 4 (literature and languages) the effect is positive in the aggregate of the sexes and for women. For areas 2 (biological sciences and health occupations) and 3 (philosophy and humanities) no significant effects were found.