Female PhD Students Research Articles

‘Under the magnolia tree, our youth’: an autoethnography on friendship and sisterhood among female international doctoral students in New Zealand

ABSTRACT This paper demonstrates how my friendship with three other female Vietnamese doctoral students in New Zealand grew into an ‘academic sisterhood’ which was forged as an emplaced form of sociality that encouraged solidarity among us. As four female Vietnamese PhD students in New Zealand who shared intersecting identities as Vietnamese temporary migrants, women, mothers, and PhD students, we provided support for and learned from each other. The sisterhood strengthened my sense of belonging to both my home and host countries, and created a learning space for myself. I argue that the academic sisterhood was far more complexly imagined and meaningful than simple bonding networks of co-ethnic friendships, embracing the mixed emplaced and transnational nature of my friendship.

Women in Natural Sciences (WiNS) at ETH Zurich Celebrates its 10th Anniversary – A Retrospective and Outlook

For this CHIMIA special issue on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the coincidental 10th anniversary of the association of Women in Natural Sciences (WiNS) at ETH Zurich, there is no better opportunity to share what we have achieved in the last decade. WiNS was originally founded by female PhD students and PostDocs at the Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences (D-CHAB) and has expanded to include three additional departments at ETH Zurich. Join us in celebrating our anniversary, reflecting on what we and other associations with the same mission have done to promote gender equality and reduced inequalities for all. We invite you to reflect on what yet has to be done to enact a systemic change towards achieving equal opportunities for all, rather than simply accommodating the female perspective to Switzerland’s predominantly masculine working culture.

Gender inequality in cum laude distinctions for PhD students

Resource allocation in academia is highly skewed, and peer evaluation is the main method used to distribute scarce resources. A large literature documents gender inequality in evaluation, and the explanation for this inequality is homophily: male evaluators give more favorable ratings to male candidates. We investigate this by focusing on cum laude distinctions for PhD students in the Netherlands, a distinction that is only awarded to 5 percent of all dissertations and has as its sole goal to distinguish the top from the rest. Using data from over 5000 PhD recipients of a large Dutch university for the period 2011–2021, we find that female PhD students were almost two times less likely to get a cum laude distinction than their male counterparts, even when they had the same doctoral advisor. This gender gap is largest when dissertations are evaluated by all-male committees and decreases as evaluation committees include more female members.

Faculty as catalysts for training new inventors: Differential outcomes for male and female PhD students

STEM PhDs are a critical source of human capital in the economy, contributing to commercial as well as academic science. We examine whether STEM PhD students become new inventors (file their first patent) during their doctoral training at the top 25 U.S. universities (by patenting). We find that 4% of PhDs become new inventors. However, among PhDs of faculty who are themselves top (prolific) inventors, this figure rises to 23%. These faculty train 44% of all the new inventor PhDs by copatenting with their advisees. We also explore whether new inventor PhDs are equally distributed by gender. In our university sample, the female share of new inventors is 9% points (pp) lower than the female share of PhDs. Several channels contribute to this: First, female PhDs are less likely to be trained by top inventor advisors (TIs) than male PhDs. Second, they are less likely to be trained by (the larger number of) male top inventors: The estimated gap in the female % of PhDs between female and male TIs is 7 to 9 pp. Third, female PhDs (supervised by top inventors and especially by other faculty) have a lower probability of becoming new inventors relative to their male counterparts. Notably, we find that male and female top inventors have similar rates of transforming their female advisees into new inventors at 4 to 8 pp lower (17 to 26% lower rate) than for male advisees. The gap remains at 4 pp comparing students of the same advisor and controlling for thesis topic.

Made for Men: Political Science Departments in the United States as Gendered Institutions

Abstract This article examines women’s perceptions of and experiences with institutional norms in political science departments and their institutions. Conceptually, it builds on feminist institutionalism. Specifically, it examines the broad institutional norms, formal and informal, that define political science departments within their larger institutions, as well as potential avenues for change. I argue that a “critical mass” of women in academic departments and the presence of “critical actors” in departmental and university leadership positions sympathetic to the cause and powerful enough to implement change can bring about institutional reforms. To that end, I conducted a survey among 1,273 female PhD students and faculty members in political science departments across the United States. The survey questions revolve around women’s perceptions of institutional gender norms, the way they are judged by them, their ability to have professional success under them, and their (or others’) ability to change them. After discussing the survey results within the context of feminist institutional theory, I offer some conclusions about the positions of women in political science departments in the United States, the implications of this for the profession at-large, and some thoughts on avenues for future research on the issue.

The Motivations, Career Decisions, and Decision-Making Processes of Female PhD Students in Engineering: Experiences and Challenges

The Motivations, Career Decisions, and Decision-Making Processes of Female PhD Students in Engineering: Experiences and Challenges

Critical reflections on the racialised hierarchies of an ethnically diverse staff-student scholarship project team

This case study article reports on the reflections of the authors who were part of a staff-student collaborative scholarship project investigating the learning experiences of Black distance-learning students. Although there is a growing body of research on the nature, experiences, power dynamics and benefits of staff-student collaborations in higher education contexts, there is much less discussion about how wider racialised hierarchies can influence such collaborations. The project discussed in this article consisted of an ethnically diverse team – including the authors of this piece who are a white male academic staff member and a female PhD student from a Black ethnic background. This case study offers a critically reflective account of the racialised hierarchy inherently present within our relationship. We briefly consider the ways in which the collaborative project was framed by potentially exploitative racialised hierarchies including the privileging of white staff members, before considering how we tried to mitigate these hierarchies by finding ways to involve and empower the ethnic minority student members of the team. These reflections might help those who are embarking upon ethnically diverse staff-student collaborations in higher education to ensure that ethnic minority students feel empowered and to help facilitate their role in promoting institutional change and disrupting exclusionary practice.

Faculty as Catalysts for New Inventors: Differential Outcomes for Male and Female PhD Students

STEM PhDs are a critical source of human capital in the innovation economy. However, their training may not have kept pace with expectations of their contributions, upon graduation, to commercial as well as academic science. We examine whether STEM PhDs engage in patenting as students, becoming new inventors (file their first patent) during doctoral training at leading U.S. universities. Overall, we find that 4% of STEM PhDs become new inventors while training. However, for advisees of faculty who are themselves top (prolific) inventors, this rises to 23%. Indeed, top inventor faculty train over 45% of new inventor PhDs by co-patenting with their advisees. Given concerns over gender inclusion, we also explore whether new inventors are equally distributed by gender. We find that in our sample, the share of female new inventors in patents is 9 percentage points lower than the share of female STEM PhDs. Various mechanisms explain this gap. First, female PhDs are less likely to be trained by top inventor faculty advisors than male PhDs (and more likely to be trained by the smaller number of female top inventors). Second, female PhDs (with either top inventor or other faculty advisors) have a lower probability of becoming a new inventor relative to male counterparts. Importantly, we find that male and female top inventors have similar rates of transforming their female advisees into new inventors at about 8 percentage points lower than for male advisees.

Student publishing in peer reviewed journals: Evidence from the International Political Science Review

AbstractPublishing in peer‐reviewed journals has become an essential requirement for PhD students wishing to pursue a career in academia. Yet, there are few studies of student publishing and little discussion of norms around attribution of authorship for student research collaborators. (1) How often do students feature as submitters and authors in political science journals? (2) In what format (i.e., solo author, co‐author, multiple authors) do students normally submit and publish? (3) Are there gender differences in student submission and publication rates between male and female students? This article uses 2 years of data from the International Political Science Review (IPSR; i.e., 2019 and 2020) to answer these questions. Mainly using cross‐tabulations, we found that just one in eight submitting authors was a student (i.e., undergraduate and postgraduate). In terms of acceptance rates, students had generally lower acceptance rates than faculty. Yet, there were also important differences within the student body. As expected PhD students were more successful than undergraduate and masters' students, and in line with general disciplinary publishing patterns, female PhD students had a higher publication success rate than their male colleagues.

Perceptions of Barriers to Motherhood: Female STEM PhD Students’ Changing Family Plans

Despite recent pronatalist policies in Hungary, the country has not boosted birth rates at the expected rate. Higher educated women still delay the transition to first birth, a smaller proportion of planned children are born than in Western European countries, and the level of childlessness has also been increasing. As a post‐socialist legacy, prevailing traditional family and gender norms strongly constrain the reconciliation of work and family roles, which can prevent women from realizing their childbearing intentions or drive them to live a childfree life. Qualitative studies about how the fertility decisions of women are formed are scarce, particularly in relation to male‐dominated high‐skilled professions, where the realization of family plans can be especially challenging. The present article explores the barriers to motherhood among female engineers. Results of 27 semi‐structured interviews with mainly childless female PhD students in 2014–2015 show that the women were subject to strong social expectations that negatively influenced their fertility plans. On the family side, these involve becoming a mother and being responsible for child care and household chores; on the work side, challenges include the knowledge‐intensiveness of jobs and a male career model that hardly tolerates the role of motherhood. As a result, the respondents had further delayed childbearing, forecast reconsidering family plans after first childbirth, and in one case, opted for voluntary childlessness. Women also reflected on how their fertility is at stake due to their postponed motherhood and the cumulative effects of hazardous laboratory work. Several intervention points are suggested to stakeholders.

Organizational Well-Being of Italian Doctoral Students: Is Academia Sustainable When It Comes to Gender Equality?

Despite the fact that there are several researchers reporting the risks of doctoral students in terms of mental health, there is still a lack of studies exploring their well-being at an organizational level, looking at the difference between male and female PhD students. This work aims at describing gender differences in the organizational well-being of doctoral students in an Italian context. A sample of 121 Italian PhD students filled an adaption of the ANAC questionnaire (National Authority for Anti-Corruption) for an organizational well-being assessment between June and July 2021. The results show that there are a number of well-being indicators for which female PhD students have statistically lower scores than men regarding: (1) the perception of health and safety at work; (2) career development; and (3) job autonomy. Practical suggestions to improve the academic system in terms of sustainability for preventing PhD students’ organizational malaise with a particular focus on gender equality are provided.

Impostor Phenomenon and Discipline-Specific Experiences of Violence in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics

Impostor phenomenon (IP) engenders persistent, self-deprecating beliefs of fraudulence for those who cannot internalize success and fear that they have fooled others into overestimating their abilities. Although well documented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), discipline-specific experiences of IP within STEM are not well explored, but could illustrate if there are nuances within STEM disciplines. This qualitative study examined discipline-specific experiences of IP due to academic workplace violence. Semistructured interviews from 34 United States-based, female PhD students were analyzed qualitatively using constant comparative method. Participants were recruited using convenience/snowball sampling for a brief survey and further interviewed based on certain eligibility criteria. Findings suggest that IP related to three types of disciplines, those involving outdoor fieldwork (e.g., geology), those with a predominantly higher number of men (e.g., physics), and those with a predominantly higher number of women (e.g., biology). Academic workplace violence included nonphysical abusive behavior, gender-based harassment, incivility, unwanted sexual attention, abusive supervision, and microaggressions. While those experiencing IP due to workplace violence were all women, perpetrators included men and women in positions of power (e.g., PhD advisors) as well as male peers. Findings enriched our understanding of IP experienced as a result of academic workplace violence.

Research network propagation: The impact of PhD students’ temporary international mobility

Abstract As the global mobility of researchers increases, many of whom are supported by national funding agencies’ mobility schemes, there is growing interest in understanding the impact of this overseas mobility on knowledge production and networking. This study addresses a relatively understudied mobility—the temporary international mobility of PhD students in STEM fields—and its relation to the establishment of research collaborations between mobile PhD students and researchers at the host university and with other researchers overseas. First, we find that 55% of the participants established relevant international collaborations (i.e., with hosting supervisors and/or others at the hosting university), and we explore these collaboration patterns in detail by taking a novel research propagation approach. Second, we identify features of the visiting period that influence the formation of research collaborations abroad, such as the prestige of the host university, the duration of the international mobility period, the cultural distance, and the number of peer PhD students at the host university. Previous research collaborations between the home and host supervisors are also found to play a crucial role in research collaboration development. Age at the time of mobility is not found to be particularly relevant. We find that female PhD students are less able to benefit from collaborative research efforts than male students. These findings advance the knowledge of global research networks and provide important insights for research funding agencies aiming to promote international research mobility at the doctoral level.

The Perceived Vocabulary Strategies and Motivation Used by Learners of Chinese as a Foreign Language

In learning a language, vocabulary forms the cornerstone of the whole process since vocabulary influences speaking, reading, and writing ability. This study involved the observation of CFL learners who are students in Nanjing-China. It aimed to critically assess the perceived challenges of CFL learners across various universities in Nanjing learning Chinese vocabularies, their adopted strategies and motivation in learning Chinese vocabularies and explore ways to improve CFL learner’s proficiency. The study used a survey questionnaire to collect the data from 120 male and female Bachelor, Master and PhD students with different ages of 20 to 43 who are enrolled in 20 universities in Nanjing China. Based on certain Descriptive analysis and calculations, the findings of the study indicate that the participants indeed experience difficulties in learning Chinese vocabularies. Moreover, the results also revealed the participants’ already laydown initiatives and strategies that are mostly influenced by their motivation to learn Chinese vocabularies. In addition, the researcher investigated the motivational levels of respondents towards learning Chinese vocabularies and how their source of motivation influences their adopted strategies. The findings showed that CFL learners are extrinsically motivated than intrinsically. The study recommends that teachers and educational authorities in China and for that matter Nanjing, should create more favorable conditions to boost the motivation level of foreign students to adopt and use appropriate strategies in learning Chinese vocabularies and consequently become proficient in Chinese language as a whole. The study ends in several recommendations to Chinese teachers and educational authorities as well as to foreign Chinese language learners with regard to the pedagogy of Chinese vocabularies.

The enactment of agency in international academic mobility: a case of Chinese female PhD students in Australia

Despite widespread discourse subordinating the female PhD as a third gender in the Chinese media, little is known about how this cohort conceptualises themselves, especially in an international context. Based on a qualitative investigation into 10 Chinese female doctoral students in Australia, this study examines their enactment of agency in international academic mobility. Drawing on the notions of “agency in mobility” and in-betweenness, this article shows that Chinese female PhD students demonstrate three forms of agency. Their agency influences how they judge, utilise, produce and imagine relations, symbols and activities in the in-between space, which in turn gives shape to their enactment of agency. This study challenges the validity of the idea that the Chinese female PhD is a sexless third gender and illuminates the dynamic reciprocity between agency and the in-betweenness in shaping their transformative doctoral student identity.

#BlackAndFemaleAndSTEM.

The #MeToo movement heightened awareness of sexism in science. More recently, nationwide protests against police brutality and other expressions of systemic anti-Black racism triggered new attention to racism in science. But without an intersectional approach, the realities for Black women can be overlooked. Using my own experience as a Black female PhD student, I argue that institutional attitudes and policies can reinforce historical inequities, rather than supporting Black women who face discrimination, and I challenge scientific leaders to create equitable environments for Black women scientists.

A Dialogue of Shared Discoveries on Immigration: A Duoethnography of International Students in Canada

International students are believed to contribute significantly in education and research as they bring a rich variety of perspectives, experiences, and languages. International students are frequently categorized into one homogenous group; however, this categorization dishonours their complex intersectional diversity and background that provides cultural capital. There is a need to understand the many manifestations of the complex and intersectional diversity in the backgrounds of international students. These students have many different reasons to immigrate to developed countries and undertake a rigorous academic program, including pursuing high academic goals, gaining personal knowledge, developing research skills, and widening employment opportunities. Using a duoethnographic dialogical approach, this article focuses on the experiences of two female international PhD students, one from Nigeria and the other from Costa Rica as they embark on a journey of shared self-discoveries on their mobility to Canada. Our paper takes a broad perspective on the processes behind mobility coming from different cultures and nationalities that meet in Canada. Some of our findings include the impact of background when transitioning to a new country, the role of reflective dialogue when questioning the source of our cultural assumptions and ethical judgments. In addition, we find that duoethnography has a strong effect to re-story our own narratives and perspectives. Finally, this dialogue allows us to broaden how we come to understand and extract meaning from our experiences as international students.

Kanter’s Theory of Proportions: Organizational Demography and PhD Completion in Science and Engineering Departments

Increasing the size and diversity of the scientific and technological workforce is a national priority. Investments in policy and programmatic efforts toward increasing the representation of women in science and engineering fields have resulted in significant advances; however, a gender gap remains among PhDs and faculty in these fields. This study tests whether Kanter’s (Men and women of the corporation, Basic Books, New York, 1977) theory of proportions, which suggests that numerical representation of groups influence group dynamics and cultural context, applies to the proportion of female faculty and the probability that female doctoral students will complete their degrees in science and engineering. Using data from two research-intensive academic institutions, results show that female doctoral students are more likely to complete the degree in departments with higher proportions of female faculty. Further, female PhD students working with female faculty dissertation advisors are also more likely to complete the degree than female PhD students working with male faculty dissertation advisors. Departmental faculty sex ratios and whether their faculty advisor is male or female, however, have no effect on the completion probabilities of male PhD students. Consistent with Kanter’s theory, research findings illustrate the importance of organizational demography on the academic outcomes of PhD students, and provide support for initiatives and programs aimed at increasing the representation of female faculty in science and engineering.

Career and research outcomes of the physician-scientist training program at the University of Calgary: a retrospective cohort study.

Physician-scientists are integral to medical research, with medical programs throughout Canada invested in training hybrid physician-scientists. Few data exist as to whether these programs are generating the diversity, gender equity and numbers of trainees essential for the future of medical research and teaching. We aimed to identify factors that contribute to research productivity, diversity and retention of individuals as physician-scientists. We completed a retrospective cohort study, for the period 1973 to 2015, of the University of Calgary Leaders in Medicine Program in Calgary, Alberta. Participants were coregistered in graduate (master's or PhD) and medical degree programs. Primary outcomes included number of publications and the eventual career paths of graduates, with individuals characterized as physicians or physician-scientists on the basis of these metrics. Of the 307 individuals who were coregistered in or had completed a joint graduate and medical degree, 125 (40.7%) were PhD students/graduates, and 182 (59.3%) were master's trainees/graduates. While in the joint program, male PhD students consistently published more frequently than female PhD students. There was no significant difference in publication records between male and female master's students. Of the 172 individuals who were 5 years or more beyond graduation, 47 (27.3%) were classified as physician-scientists; these individuals consisted of 28 (40.6%) of the 69 PhD graduates and 19 (18.4%) of the 103 master's graduates. Overall, our study shows that graduates receiving both clinical and research training, through master's or PhD programs, continue to be involved in research in their subsequent careers.

How Women in Biomedical PhD Programs Manage Gender Consciousness as They Persist Toward Academic Research Careers.

Women remain underrepresented as biomedical faculty and are more likely than white and Asian men to lose interest in faculty careers in graduate school. However, some women maintain interest in academic research careers during PhD training and are the most likely candidates for faculty positions. This study explored how these women described and interpreted gender issues at early stages in their training. Annual interviews from 2009 to 2014 with 22 female PhD students aspiring to research faculty careers were analyzed using an iterative, content analysis approach rooted in the interview data. Focusing on career intentions and experiences with gender, race, and ethnicity, authors arrived at 11 themes which describe a range of gendered experiences and strategies. Of the 22 women, 19 (86%) acknowl edged systemic gender inequities in science and/or reported instances of bias, while 15 of them also said they had not yet experienced unequal treatment. All 22 described using at least one "gender-explicit strategy," where they based decisions on gender or in response to perceived biases. "Gender-agnostic strategies" emerged for 12 (55%) who doubted that gender will affect their career. Findings show that women biomedical PhD students continue to face conditions that can lead to unequal treatment; gender biases continue to persist. Students displayed a range of perceptions and strategies in response to these conditions at this early training stage. Following these students over time will determine whether these or other strategies are required and sufficient to enable persistence toward academic careers.