Female physicist doctoral experiences

Abstract

The underrepresentation of women in physics doctorate programs and in tenured academic positions indicates a need to evaluate what may influence their career choice and persistence. This qualitative paper examines eleven females in physics doctoral programs and professional science positions in order to provide a more thorough understanding of why and how women make career choices based on aspects both inside and outside of school and their subsequent interaction. Results indicate that female physicists experience conflict in achieving balance within their graduate school experiences and personal lives and that this then influences their view of their future careers and possible career choices. Female physicists report both early and longterm support outside of school by family, and later departmental support, as being essential to their persistence within the field. A greater focus on informal and out-of-school science activities for females, especially those that involve family members, early in life may help influence their entrance into a physics career later in life. Departmental support, through advisers, mentors, peers, and women's support groups, with a focus on work-life balance can help females to complete graduate school and persist into an academic career.

How Stereotypes Impact Women in Physics

“…These research efforts have documented gender differences in undergraduate achievement and sought to remedy them [6][7][8], focused on the work-life balance of women with children [9,10], and studied the experiences of women in physics who hold multiple underrepresented characteristics [11]. The work has primarily emphasized women's experiences as undergraduate students [12][13][14][15], with fewer articles tackling the issues of women in graduate programs [16][17][18][19].…”

Understanding Women's Gendered Experiences in Physics and Astronomy Through Microaggressions

“…The low representation of women in physics has been a significant concern in the Physics Education Research (PER) literature [1,2]. This work has largely addressed issues in the classroom [1] or workplace choices [2].…”

“…This work has largely addressed issues in the classroom [1] or workplace choices [2]. These articles have been an important foundation in describing, understanding, and improving women's experiences in physics.…”

“…Graduate education research has recently focused on women's desires to have a family, life outside of research, and career [2]. Women in graduate physics have described their life goals as being incompatible with a career in academic research.…”

The Interactions of Relationships, Interest, and Self-Efficacy in Undergraduate Physics

“…In this case, we examine the effect of gender on social network development. Physics fields, in particular, suffer from evident underrepresentation of women Dabney & Tai, 2013). This characteristic often manifests itself at the undergraduate level in the form of gender gaps found in student concept inventories .…”