Impacts of Changes to County Educator Position Descriptions on Gender and Educational Diversity

For the purposes of more accurately reflecting job duties and increasing diversity, Ohio county agriculture and natural resources educator position descriptions were changed in 2013 to include natural resources as an educational qualification. We examined applicant and hiring data from 3 years before and 3 years after the position description change. Results indicate that the numbers of women applicants and applicants with natural resources degrees increased following the position description change. However, although the percentage of hires with natural resources backgrounds increased, the percentage of female hires decreased sharply. Factors influencing the hiring of county agriculture and natural resources educators need to be examined