CONGRUENCE OF PROTEGE'S GENDER-ROLE AND MENTOR'S PERCEIVED GENDER-ROLE ON PROTEGE ENGAGEMENT AND MENTORING EFFECTIVENESS Savage, Catherine M. Higher education institutions, particularly those who specialize in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), are experiencing high turnover rates among their students. In work settings, mentors have been instrumental in the engagement and retention of employees. Therefore, we examined mentoring effectiveness and its utilization to help increase student retention and engagement for 118 students in a university in the Midwest. Also, we examined how perceived similarity between the protégé and mentor on surface- and deep-level characteristics (e.g., gender and gender role orienation) can influence both the perceived effectiveness of the mentoring relationship, as well as the protégé’s level of engagement. The results from this research found that surface-level variables, such as sociodemographic gender, were not related to the mentoring relationship or a student’s level of engagement. However, perceived similarity between the mentor and protégés on masculinity and femininity increased the protégés perceived effectiveness of the mentoring relationship. Further, perceived similarity and dissimilarity on protégé and mentor femininity increased levels of student engagement. Implications and avenues for future research are discussed. M.S. in Psychology, May 2013 Ayman, Roya 2013-04-22 2013-05 Thesis application/pdf islandora:6604 http://hdl.handle.net/10560/3090 PSYCH / Institute of Psychology Illinois Institute of Technology en In Copyright http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/ Restricted Access