Dr. Krista Wellnitz, Animal, Dairy and Veterinary Science faculty, along with Dr. Dong Isbister, faculty in Women and Gender Studies, at UW–Platteville are working on a Dairy Innovation Hub project titled “Evaluating trends in female to male ratios in dairy science and related programs throughout Wisconsin and the Midwest region and the translation into post-secondary employment.”
The goals of this project are to evaluate trends in female to male ratios in dairy science, animal science and agribusiness at UW–Platteville over the past 10 -15 years. In addition, researchers will compare this information to other major state and regional agricultural universities and technical institutions.
Through this project, faculty hope to begin to understand how the female to male ratios in the university classroom translate into positions within the agriculture industry after graduation. And finally, if students are not pursuing agriculture related careers post-graduation, what careers are those female graduates pursuing and why?
Data collection is underway via individual surveys to UW–Platteville alumni in dairy science, animal science and agribusiness. In addition, researchers will build on the survey data by working with small focus groups, as well as individual interviews. This information will allow faculty to better understand individual career choices post-graduation.
This project is essential to informing educators on how they can help ensure the transition from dairy science, animal science, and agribusiness degrees to industry-related jobs for all institution types. In addition, it will allow faculty to gauge why students are selecting such a degree in college but may choose a different career after graduation.
Collecting this data through surveys, focus groups, and interviews will help to better understand how programs may need to adjust, shift, and change to see a greater number of our undergraduates pursue and maintain high-quality careers in agriculture.