NIU men and women are choosing traditional majors for their sex, according to NIU statistics.

Nearly 90 percent of students majoring in education and professional studies at NIU are women, while 90 percent of students in engineering are men, according to NIU’s Department of Institutional Research.

Professional studies include nursing, allied health, and human and family resource majors.

“Parents and school advisers encourage children to take certain career paths. They don’t twist their arms, but they do encourage certain jobs for certain sexes,” said NIU sociology instructor Liz Hoisington.

The majors dominated by women include nursing, teaching, human and family resources, communicative disorders, educational psychology, counseling, and special education.

Men dominate electrical engineering, technology, engineering and engineering technology majors, according to statistics.

Chairman of Technology Dennis Stoia said men tend to be more interested in math and science than women, even though women are just as capable in those subjects.

“It’s part of our culture and the roles men and women play,” Stoia said. “We’re a hands-on department. And for a lot of females, that’s just not the kind of thing they want to do,” Stoia said.

Michele Moroney, a junior technology major, is the only woman in her technology lab class this semester.

“It’s really weird. When I walk into class, the last thing I want is to be the first one to be electrocuted. The first thing guys will think (is the accident happened) because I’m a girl,” Moroney said.

She said she feels a lot of men think she is flirting with the instructor whenever she talks with him in a friendly manner. “I feel like I have to prove myself. The guys will be watching for every mistake I make,” she said.

Francis Alog, a freshman nursing major, said he gets teased sometimes because of his career choice, but it does not bother him.

“Sometimes they (men) think of nursing as a sissy job,” Alog said. He said he works well with the other women students and they treat each other as equals.

Bob Cordero, a junior primary education major, said males often do not understand why he wants to be a teacher instead of a more traditional business major.

“I want to teach because I want to make a difference in this world. And I don’t think being a business major will really make the difference I want,” Cordero said.

“I got into teaching because I saw a lack of good male teachers in my high school and the ones I had weren’t very good,” he said.

Females have historically chosen to pursue careers involving children, said Alan Voelker, chairman of the department of curriculum and instruction.

“I don’t think it (qualifications based on sex) is something you can generalize. You have to take it on a case by case basis,” he said.