Linda J. Sax

Associate Professor of Education Linda J. Sax, a Sudikoff Family Institute Fellow for 2008-09, studies gender differences in college student development, to determine how institutional characteristics, peer and faculty environments, and forms of student involvement may affect women and men college students differently.

While numerous studies on college impact exist within the field of higher education, there has been little research examining whether college affects women and men differently. Professor Sax's work questions how and why gender shapes the college experience, and seeks to determine if the factors that inform student development operate differently for male and female students. She explores whether certain college environments or experiences have stronger or weaker effects on women than on men, and what implications this might have for campus programming.

Professor Sax's most recent report, "Women Graduates of Single-Sex And Coeducational High Schools: Differences in their Characteristics and the Transition to College," was commissioned by the National Coalition of Girls' Schools. The report, which separately considers female students from independent and Catholic high schools nationwide, also distinguishes the effects of single-sex schooling from the role played by other high school characteristics as well as the demographic backgrounds of females who attend all-girls schools. Due to its large, national sample and number of control variables, the report makes a notable contribution to the research on single-sex education.

Professor Sax is the author of The Gender Gap in College, (Jossey-Bass, 2008), which examines the impact of college experiences on a full spectrum of student outcomes in the areas of academic achievement, self-concept, life goals, career development, physical and emotional health, political and social attitudes, and satisfaction with college. The book addresses the interests and needs of researchers and practitioners developing student programs and services in higher education, and is an outgrowth of an examination of data culled from forty years of the renowned Freshman Survey.

The Gender Gap in College highlights a significant trend unfolding in higher education. While college enrollment is on the rise for both women and men, women's enrollment – about 58% nationally – has outpaced men's, resulting in a "gender gap." The widening of the gender gap is due largely to an influx of women from underrepresented groups, including African Americans, Latinas, older students, and those of lower socioeconomic status.

In a contribution to the public forum, Professor Sax addressed some of the issues faced by women entering college today in an essay for The Chronicle Review, a supplement to The Chronicle of Higher Education. The essay, "College Women Still Face Many Obstacles in Reaching Their Full Potential," appeared September 28, 2007.

Professor Sax is co-principal investigator on a National Science Foundation sponsored project to increase women's pursuit of graduate degrees in the physical sciences and engineering.

The recipient of the 2005 Scholar-in-Residence Award from the American Association of University Women, Professor Sax was honored with the 1999 Early Career Award from the Association for the Study of Higher Education.

As an Associate Professor of Higher Education at UCLA's Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, Professor Sax teaches graduate courses in research methodology, evaluation of higher education, and gender issues in higher education. She also serves as founding faculty director of UCLA's new Master's in Student Affairs program. From 1994 to 2005 she oversaw the administration of nationwide surveys of college students and faculty in her role as Director of the Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) and Associate Director of the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) at UCLA.

Professor Sax has contributed frequently to a number of distinguished academic publications including Research in Higher Education, The Review of Higher Education, The Journal of Higher Education, The Journal of College Student Development, and Educational Record, and has served on Editorial Boards for The Review of Higher Education and Research in Higher Education. She has provided expert commentary and perspective for such national news outlets as CNN, ABC, CBS, and Fox, and national newspapers including the New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post.

Having received her B.A. in political economy from the University of California, Berkeley in 1990, Professor Sax completed her M.A. in 1991 and Ph.D. in 1994 at the University of California, Los Angeles.

For more information, please visit: http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/members/sax

Graduate School of Education & Information Studies