Women Doctoral Students Research Articles

Exploring the impact of “onlyness” among Black women doctoral students in computer science and engineering.

Exploring the impact of “onlyness” among Black women doctoral students in computer science and engineering.

“Against all odds”: A collective Black feminist autoethnography of Black women doctoral students’ experiences in higher education programs.

“Against all odds”: A collective Black feminist autoethnography of Black women doctoral students’ experiences in higher education programs.

Humanizing the Lived Experiences of Muslim, Immigrant-Origin, Women Doctoral Students, and Black Women Faculty: A Photovoice Study

Abstract: Using the frameworks of Critical Race Feminism (CRF) and Representational Intersectionality, we employ photovoice as a form of Participatory Action Research (PAR) method to illustrate the lived experiences and voices of Muslim, immigrant-origin, women doctoral students, and Black faculty in predominantly and historically white institutions (PHWIs) within the United States (U.S.). The findings illustrate how we make meaning of our academic experiences, and challenge grand narratives that are rooted in anti-Blackness, anti-Muslim, anti-immigration, sexism, classism, racism, and other forms of social oppressions in order to provide and develop humanizing approaches to be seen and valued within higher education. This study expands on strategies to support and empower graduate and faculty women of color in the Academy as they navigate and find humanizing approaches to succeed in PHWIs.

Returning or not returning: desire, becoming and decisions following PhD completion

ABSTRACT This paper aims to uncover the meanings of the decisions of a group of Vietnamese women doctoral students and academics following the completion of their doctoral studies in Australia. Drawing on interview data with the women and the Deleuzian concept of desire, this paper highlights that their decisions are generated within multiple power relations related to unequal educational resources, contemporary practices of competition across higher education contexts and individual backgrounds of the women. The women navigated through their experiences, challenging and disrupting such power relations while aspiring to become otherwise. The paper suggests how to gear returning mechanism to facilitate the movement of academic knowledge across spaces.

Humanizing the Lived Experiences of Muslim, Immigrant-Origin, Women Doctoral Students, and Black Women Faculty: A Photovoice Study

Using the frameworks of Critical Race Feminism (CRF) and Representational Intersectionality, we employ photovoice as a form of Participatory Action Research (PAR) method to illustrate the lived experiences and voices of Muslim, immigrant-origin, women doctoral students, and Black faculty in predominantly and historically white institutions (PHWIs) within the United States (U.S.). The findings illustrate how we make meaning of our academic experiences, and challenge grand narratives that are rooted in anti-Blackness, anti-Muslim, anti-immigration, sexism, classism, racism, and other forms of social oppressions in order to provide and develop humanizing approaches to be seen and valued within higher education. This study expands on strategies to support and empower graduate and faculty women of color in the Academy as they navigate and find humanizing approaches to succeed in PHWIs.

Stitching Narratives: Poetic Autoethnography of Black Women’s Mentorship in Academia

This study utilizes collaborative poetic autoethnography to explore the mentorship experiences of three Black women doctoral students at predominantly White institutions (PWIs). Through a series of poems, the research illustrates the nuanced challenges and resilience in seeking guidance within spaces that often marginalize their voices. This writing centers intersectionality as a theoretical framework, illuminating the complex dynamics of identity as they intersect with academia. The poetic narratives serve as a way for expressing the lived realities of these students, highlighting the lack of Black women mentors and the consequent need to navigate a system not built with them in mind. The study calls for a reimagined mentorship that is acutely responsive to the multifaceted identities of Black women in academia, advocating for increased representation and intentional support.

I lost my mentor, now what? The experiences of counseling psychology women doctoral students who lost their mentor: Training and program implications.

I lost my mentor, now what? The experiences of counseling psychology women doctoral students who lost their mentor: Training and program implications.

“Tone It Down”: The Whitewashing of Black Women Doctoral Students’ Research and Scholarship at Predominately White Institutions—Implications for Social Work Doctoral Education

ABSTRACT While there is growing research on the structural and institutional barriers experienced by Black women faculty at predominantly White institutions (PWIs), little is known about the systemic marginalization faced by Black women doctoral students at these institutions, particularly those in doctoral social work programs. Given the increasing number of Black women doctoral students in social work programs at PWIs, there is a need to understand how social work doctoral education upholds institutional whiteness through attempts to whitewash Black women’s research and scholarship. This article contextualizes the experiences of Black women social work doctoral students using Black feminist thought perspective. The authors provide implications for social work doctoral education to dismantle structures that facilitate whitewashing experiences for Black women doctoral students.

Factors Contributing to Imposter Phenomenon in Doctoral Students: A US-Based Qualitative Study

Aim/Purpose: Our study explores the factors contributing to the Imposter Phenomenon among doctoral students in the United States. Background: Many studies show that Imposter Phenomenon impacts women doctoral students and students from minority groups, especially if they are enrolled in Predominantly White Institutions. Our study focuses explicitly on contributing factors to the Imposter Phenomenon among doctoral students in the United States. The study also explored how Imposter Phenomenon is related to doctoral students’ academic goals and achievements. Methodology: We utilized a qualitative phenomenological research design and conducted semi-structured interviews (45-90 minutes) in person and via Zoom. This study was conducted at a public research university in mid-western United States. A total of 14 (3 male and 11 female) doctoral students participated in the study. These students self-identified as White (9), African American (1), South Asian (2), mixed race (1), and Latina (1). Of the 14 students, 4 were international, and 10 were domestic. These students were from various disciplines, such as Education, Economics, Anthropology, Biology, Plant Sciences, and Engineering. Contribution: The study contributes to the field of psychology and higher education and helps us better understand doctoral students’ conceptions and experiences of the Imposter Phenomenon. The study provides empirical support to some of the previous claims by researchers and provides new insights related to the Imposter Phenomenon. Findings: In our study, participants did not consider the Imposter Phenomenon merely a personal or internal feeling or mental condition as presented in previous studies. We found there are multiple layers of the issue, and sociocultural factors play a contributing role to the Imposter Phenomenon. In our study, we found that relations with family, siblings, peers, and faculty played a significant role in shaping our participants’ sense of self and impacted how they responded to challenges in their academic life. We also noted that institutional culture impacts doctoral students’ self-concept and academic performance. Female doctoral students mentioned institutional culture and prevalent sexism in STEM fields as contributing factors to the Imposter Phenomenon. Overall, gender, race, age, and mental health emerged as major contributing factors to the Imposter Phenomenon among doctoral students. Recommendations for Practitioners: We recommend that higher education institutions should help doctoral students, especially students from underrepresented groups, by providing social, emotional, and economic support. To mitigate the challenges of institutional sexism, racism, and ageism, higher education institutions should consider creating peer support groups and try to foster a healthy and supportive environment for doctoral students. These groups could build on ontological inquiries to bolster student resiliency and self-perception. Also, there is a dire need for easily accessible mental health services on campuses, especially for graduate students. Recommendation for Researchers: Doctoral students, if successful, can play a significant role in society’s future growth. However, doctoral completion rates are currently staggeringly low, and the degree program is long. The situation is exacerbated due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This impacts doctoral students’ emotional, psychological, and economic well-being, and may affect their health and family relationships. Incomplete doctoral degrees can be costly for individuals and society. Higher education institutions must provide better mental health and economic support to help doctoral students succeed in their programs so they can positively contribute to society and the world. Impact on Society: Doctoral students, if successful, can play a significant role in society’s future growth. However, doctoral completion rates are currently staggeringly low, and the degree program is long. The situation is exacerbated due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This impacts doctoral students’ emotional, psychological, and economic well-being, and may affect their health and family relationships. Incomplete doctoral degrees can be costly for individuals and society. Higher education institutions must provide better mental health and economic support to help doctoral students succeed in their programs so they can positively contribute to society and the world. Future Research: We plan to expand our study to better understand the Imposter Phenomenon among doctoral students from cross-cultural perspectives to see if the same factors exist there.

"I'm Like a Chameleon": Coping Strategies Used by Haredi Women Doctoral Students Reconciling Their Religious and Academic Identities.

This study examined Jewish ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) women doctoral students to analyze the shaping of their religious and academic identities, and particularly the coping strategies they use to reconcile them. It is informed by theories on the definition of social and collective identities and the way individuals assimilate upon encountering a new collective, as well as by actual processes of Haredi integration in Israeli academia over the years. The study concludes that in their academic development, these women challenge their traditional social worlds and enter the world of learning, which in their community is exclusively reserved for men.

‘They are just women, what do they know?’: The lived experiences of African women doctoral students in the mathematics discipline in South African universities

Background: The presence of African women in mathematics has been nearly invisible. The underrepresentation of African women in this field is a result of their historical socio-political marginalisation. The mathematics discipline is politicised, racialised, and gendered to systematically oppress African women. The mathematics fields continue to be a masculine and white male dominated field, which reinforces and preserves masculine culture which is hostile and unwelcoming to women. African women mathematicians are further oppressed because of their racial and gendered identities in fields that are ideologically founded on proving the racial, gendered, social, cultural, and intellectual inferiority of Africans.Aim: The article aims to exemplify the lived experiences of African women doctoral students in the mathematics disciplines in South African universities. The article critically interrogates the factors that influence the participation, progression, and retention of African female doctoral students in the mathematics disciplines.Setting: The article comes from a larger study which investigated the reasons why African doctorate students do not become academics after they receive their doctorates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines in South African universities. This paper focuses on the experiences of 10 African female doctoral students at five universities in South Africa. The universities were selected because they ranked in the top five in South Africa. Two of the institutions are historically Black universities and the rest are historically white institutions, with one historically Afrikaner-speaking university—between 2019–2021.Methods: This article employed a qualitative research methodology, where semi-structures interviews were conducted with 10 African female doctoral participants in mathematics disciplines in five South African universities and is underpinned by the theory of intersectionality.Results: The findings reveal how interlocking systems of oppression continue to influence the recruitment, retention, and progression of women in the mathematics discipline, thereby providing insight into the mechanisms that need to be altered and/or put in place to actively recruit African female doctoral students and retain them in academic positions.Conclusion: The article concludes that despite the mathematics field proclaiming neutrality and objectivity nevertheless, African women still experience racism, sexism, and classism. The experiences of African women in mathematics are vital to understanding the reasons why there is a high attrition rate of African women in the mathematics discipline in academia and why they do not become academics when they could transform this discipline.

Is it transformation or reform? The lived experiences of African women doctoral students in STEM disciplines in South African universities

Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields have historically been disciplines dominated by white men. The colonial ideology designated Africans as subhuman, inferior intellectually, socially, and culturally to the white masculine norm in STEM disciplines. STEM education and careers were thus constructed to attract white, heterosexual, middle-to-upper class, Christian, able-bodied men. This positioning ensured that STEM environments remained inhospitable to anyone whose identity was outside the constructed somatic norm. The calls and imperatives to transform notwithstanding, the transformation process in STEM disciplines is moving at a snail-like pace. This article argues that what is occurring in STEM disciplines in South African universities is reform not transformation. It is underpinned by the intersectional theory within the qualitative paradigm. Seventy-three African doctoral and postdoctoral women students in STEM were interviewed from five South African universities. The findings highlighted how African women in STEM face challenges based on their racial and gendered identities and that what is presented as transformation is still oppressive to them. The study also found that equity through access to education in democratic South Africa does not equate to transformation. The argument presented is that despite existing policies and initiatives in South African universities to transform, the demographic inclusion of African, female staff and students does not necessarily equate to transforming the STEM environment. What needs to occur is a shift beyond reform and towards transformation through the use of strategic inventions which dismantle the racist, sexist, classist, and xenophobic ideology that permeates these environments.

Examining Relationships Matter

The purpose of this study was to explore how and why various relationships bolstered the success of Black women doctoral students by contributing to their motivation and persistence in graduate education. Using the voices of 14 Black women doctoral students within the United States and community cultural wealth as a theoretical lens, this qualitative study sought to examine the nature and importance of supportive relationships that existed during their graduate studies. Findings from this study revealed that family served as a motivator for enrollment and degree completion, a sounding board during trying times, and a space for processing the doctoral experience. Friends and professional associations transmitted various forms of social capital, and mentors served as advocates and facilitators of professional socialization. Additionally, social media played a significant role in helping Black women establish networks when there was limited visibility of or access to other Black women in their graduate programs. From this study, academic programs may be able to glean which aspects of these different relationship types (e.g., family, friends, mentors) matter and develop mechanisms for incorporating them into the experiences of Black women (and other minoritized groups) in doctoral programs.

Infertility and Pregnancy Loss in Doctoral Education: Understanding Students’ Experiences

Women enter doctoral programs at higher numbers than ever before, earning half the doctoral degrees in the United States. Some women doctoral students experience pregnancy and parenthood during their studies. As infertility and pregnancy loss are common occurrences, likely many women doctoral students encountered these reproductive challenges as well. This research study ( N = 328) explores the experiences of women doctoral students who experience infertility, fertility treatment, and pregnancy loss. Participants described the influence of these experiences on their doctoral education, productivity, and professional development, the institutional resources available to support them, and the gaps in supports. Women who accessed fertility treatment reported more of an impact on productivity and more desired institutional supports than those who experienced infertility without treatment or pregnancy loss. The implications of these findings are discussed, including the use of the mentoring relationship to support women doctoral students, the role of grief, and the creation of formal institutional policies that explicitly address these types of circumstances, allowing for accommodations such as flexibility and class absences.

Multifaceted mentorship community: resisting historical mentoring to create mentee-initiated and sustained mentorship for women doctoral students

ABSTRACT In the absence of an institutionally sponsored doctoral mentoring program, a small group of women doctoral students developed a new model of mentoring by initiating and sustaining a multifaceted mentorship community (MMC). Using an autoethnographic approach, we present the development of this new model and insights into a mentee-initiated, multifaceted mentorship community that supports doctoral students. Our findings indicate the MMC helped doctoral students understand and navigate the politics of the university, created a collaborative culture that crowded out isolation, and provided sustainable mentorship. This study offers guidance for doctoral students and faculty in need of alternatives to traditional mentoring models. The MMC model may also be useful in educational and business environments outside of higher education.

Reconstruction of Women Students's Subjectivities at the Intersection of Doctoral study and Motherhood (A narrative of Two Women Doctoral Students in Education at a University in Tehran)

Though the research conducted in studying the causes and effects of the increase in the number of female students at universities in Iran particularly in doctoral studies, few studies have examined deeply the lived experiences of women doctoral students and the complexities of their lived experiences has been neglected in the resulted metanarratives. Thus, this article attempts to explore women doctoral students' lived experiences through the narratives of two doctoral students in Education who experience motherhood in their doctoral study. Drawing on post-structuralist theorizing around subjectification, this narrative study focuses on how their subjectivity is being intersectionally reconstructed with motherhood. The findings of the narrative analysis of the interviews depicts the uniqueness of their narratives despite the similarities. Their main self-narrative is personal progress which is narrated through their different storylines of selfhood interwoven with their similar shame/pride storyline of motherhood in doctoral study. It is argued that the implications of self-narratives performed by doctoral students will contribute to the facilitation of other women doctoral students' experiences and provide a deeper insight for the supervisors and the policy makers in higher education. Keywords: lived experience; narrative inquiry; subjectivities; women doctoral students.

Defining ourselves: Exploring our leader and activist identities as Asian American women doctoral students.

Defining ourselves: Exploring our leader and activist identities as Asian American women doctoral students.

Commitment, Community and Consciousness: A Collaborative Autoethnography of a Doctoral Sister Circle

Although multiple studies acknowledge the significance of mentoring for African American women doctoral students, the literature lacks empirical support for the formation, sustainability and outcomes of mentoring relationships. In academia, African American women are an understudied subject which leads to a paucity of educational programming and policies that address their specific learning needs. Without targeted research, educators are limited in their ability to understand African American women doctoral students’ educational needs. The purpose of this collaborative autoethnography was to examine the reflections of four women participating in a doctoral sister circle called UUSC. This study explored their lived experiences and ways UUSC nurtured, supported, and empowered both the students and their mentor. Data analysis showcased themes of commitment, community and consciousness which can be instructive for other African American women doctoral students and mentors. Findings indicated that in safe spaces, such as this sister circle, where African American women are authentically concerned about each other’s well being and success, their level of commitment and consciousness increases. This work has implications for educators and students because it provides a roadmap for addressing the unique learning needs of African American women through mentoring.

Mothers and higher education: balancing time, study and space

ABSTRACT Balancing higher education, study, family life and a professional role is a complex task for many women students. Family support, work commitments and feelings of guilt can impact on how mothers carve out time and space for family life and their studies. This paper draws on qualitative research with women doctoral students to examine their use of time and space. Following a narrative line of inquiry with methods of mind mapping and focused interviews, family capital was used as a theoretical lens to analyse the role the family plays in supporting access to time and space. Findings reveal factors that may act as a barrier to a woman’s success and highlight certain strategies that mothers use to find time and space to study. This paper highlights the important role of economic, social, cultural and emotional capital in the family and how access to capital influences study patterns, especially in terms of ‘headspace’.

Illuminating social-class identity: The persistence of working-class African American women doctoral students.

Illuminating social-class identity: The persistence of working-class African American women doctoral students.