Same-gender relationships in graduate supervision

A reviewing of the research literature revealsarguments that both support and contradict theassumption that female supervisors are important forsupporting academic careers of female graduatestudents. The present study supports the claims thatgender matters when supervisory relationships areestablished. Data from a survey among all regularfaculty members at Norwegian universities show thatthere is a significant same-gender tendency ingraduate supervisory relationships, and that thistendency is stronger among women than among men. Thetendency varies between fields of learning and betweendepartments with different proportions of femalefaculty members. The results are discussed in relationto different explanations of same-genderrelationships.