“I can't push off my own Mental Health”: Chilly STEM Climates, Mental Health, and STEM Persistence among Black, Latina, and White Graduate Women

Wilkins‐Yel, Kerrie G.; Arnold, Amanda; Bekki, Jennifer M.; Natarajan, Madison; Bernstein, Bianca L.; Randall, Ashley K.

doi:10.1007/s11199-021-01262-1

Cited by 42 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 75 publications

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“…Many other sources have also reported on these mental health trends among graduate students in recent years 54 , 55 and the effects it has on women’s persistence in STEM. 56 …”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Namely, women frequently reported experiences of stress, anxiety, burnout, depression, a lack of belonging, and social isolation (Figure a), many of which had negative correlations of a small effect size with FCI. Many other sources have also reported on these mental health trends among graduate students in recent years , and the effects it has on women’s persistence in STEM …”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Many other sources have also reported on these mental health trends among graduate students in recent years 54,55 and the effects it has on women's persistence in STEM. 56 Equally relevant to the question of why women choose to avoid academic positions is the correlation of a medium effect size between FCI and how much respondents predicted they would have time to deal with health or outside stressors (Figure 5b). An alarming number of graduate women also predicted they would experience worsened health if they were to pursue a faculty positioneven if they believed a future position would support their health, they believe they would need to sacrifice health to get there (Figure 5c).…”

Section: Themementioning

confidence: 99%

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Graduate Student Women’s Perceptions of Faculty Careers: The Critical Role of Departmental Values and Support in Career Choice

Howe

Kim

Pazicni

2022

JACS Au

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While the number of women in undergraduate and graduate chemistry programs has increased in recent years, women remain under-represented and excluded in the ranks of faculty in chemistry higher education. This marginalization results from not only fewer women being offered faculty positions but also fewer women applying for these positions. To investigate the reasons why faculty positions are causing so many women to turn elsewhere for employment, a survey was designed based on the literature themes surrounding women’s career choices, interviews with the current graduate student women in chemistry programs, and our previous work. The survey was grounded in social cognitive career theory (SCCT), and data were analyzed through a QuantCrit lens. Despite the existing literature focusing on the impact of having children on women’s career decisions, the desire to have children did not appear among either the top priorities or the most important factors in predicting whether any of the 130 survey respondents were interested in a faculty career. Instead, faculty career interest was related to themes of overwork, high expectations from departments, and expected department emphasis on research despite an individual’s interest in teaching and mentoring. Furthermore, women expressed a strong interest in maintaining work–life balance but low expectations for their ability to obtain a position that would allow it. They also reported a desire to work for a department that values mental health and diversity and supports its community members but similarly low expectations for their ability to find a department that shares these values. These themes suggest that chemistry departments must make fundamental changes regarding what is tangibly valued and rewarded within their systems if they wish to reduce the exclusion of women in faculty positions.

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“…Many other sources have also reported on these mental health trends among graduate students in recent years 54 , 55 and the effects it has on women’s persistence in STEM. 56 …”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Themementioning

confidence: 99%

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Graduate Student Women’s Perceptions of Faculty Careers: The Critical Role of Departmental Values and Support in Career Choice

Howe

Kim

Pazicni

2022

JACS Au

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“…This toll manifested as panic like symptoms such as difficulty breathing and stress pain. Extant research such as Wilkins-Yel, Arnold, et al (2022) highlighted how the toll of navigating structural barriers in STEM negatively affected graduate women of color’s mental health, and in turn, contributed to students deciding to discontinue their doctoral pursuits in STEM. For participants in the study by Wilkins-Yel, Arnold, et al (2022), leaving their STEM programs “was the ultimate act of self-preservation” (p. 220).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Extant research such as Wilkins-Yel, Arnold, et al (2022) highlighted how the toll of navigating structural barriers in STEM negatively affected graduate women of color’s mental health, and in turn, contributed to students deciding to discontinue their doctoral pursuits in STEM. For participants in the study by Wilkins-Yel, Arnold, et al (2022), leaving their STEM programs “was the ultimate act of self-preservation” (p. 220). With researchers citing a “mental health crisis” plaguing graduate education, specifically STEM graduate education (Evans et al, 2017), coupled with the pervasive underrepresentation of women of color across all levels of education in STEM (Ong et al, 2011), it is necessary to implicate the institutional structures, stakeholders, and practices that perpetuate women of color’s departure from STEM.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining how graduate advisors mitigate or exacerbate the structural barriers Women of Color navigate in STEM doctoral programs.

Wilkins‐Yel¹,

Delaney²,

Cuervo³

et al. 2023

Journal of Diversity in Higher Education

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Steeped in both critical race feminism (Wing, 1997) and social cognitive career theory (Lent et al., 2002), the present study intentionally centered the voices of 11 Women of Color graduate students and early career professionals to understand how graduate advisors mitigated or exacerbated the structural barriers Women of Color navigate during their science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) doctoral programs. Using thematic analysis grounded in the social constructivist paradigm, researchers identified four emergent themes: (a) unsupportive advising behaviors as a contextual barrier, (b) debilitating impact on mental health, (c) shared gender identity but mismatch racial/ethnic identity, and (d) advocacy-centered instrumental support and psychosocial support as key contextual supports. Results indicated that graduate advisors’ behaviors served as both contextual barriers that exacerbated the structural barriers Women of Color navigated in STEM, as well as contextual supports that enhanced the doctoral experience and mitigated the adverse toll of marginalizing encounters in STEM. Three recommendations that stem from this work include: (a) adopt an intersectional approach to advising that values students as whole beings, (b) commit to antioppressive advocacy as part of the advising role, and (c) recognize the toll that unsupportive advising behaviors have on Women of Color’s mental health.

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“The lab isn't life”: Black engineering graduate students reprioritize values at the intersection of two pandemics

Coley

Thomas

2023

J of Engineering Edu

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Background: Black engineering graduate students represent a critical and understudied population in engineering education. Gaining an understanding of the lived experiences of Black engineering graduate students while they are simultaneously weathering two pandemics, COVID-19 and systemic racism, is of paramount importance. Purpose/Hypothesis: Black engineering graduate students hold a unique duality, as both Black people in the United States and Black graduate students in US engineering programs that espouse white supremacist ideals. Their realworld experiences necessitate understanding, and this paper highlights the related impact on the students themselves, their adaptations to the pandemics, and how those adaptations relate to and affect their support needs and navigation of their engineering academic environments.Design/Method: An interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) approach was combined with community-based participatory action research and was situated in Boykin's Triple Quandary. A family check-in was conducted with 10 Black engineering graduate students enrolled in doctoral programs across the country to delve deep into their lived experience as a cultural community. Results: Findings include an emergent framework of Black engineering graduate student values in response to the pandemics. These values aligned with the Black Cultural Ethos, demonstrating an adoption of collectivistic cultural values in times of crises. Further, COVID-19 and systemic racism differentially impacted Black engineering graduate students and, thus, the manifestations of their values. Conclusion: For institutions to be able to effectively support their Black engineering graduate students, they must gain awareness of the students' experiences, values, and needs, in general, and amid crises specifically. The findings presented here provide a critical window into this information.

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“I can't push off my own Mental Health”: Chilly STEM Climates, Mental Health, and STEM Persistence among Black, Latina, and White Graduate Women

Cited by 42 publications

References 75 publications

Graduate Student Women’s Perceptions of Faculty Careers: The Critical Role of Departmental Values and Support in Career Choice

Graduate Student Women’s Perceptions of Faculty Careers: The Critical Role of Departmental Values and Support in Career Choice

Examining how graduate advisors mitigate or exacerbate the structural barriers Women of Color navigate in STEM doctoral programs.

“The lab isn't life”: Black engineering graduate students reprioritize values at the intersection of two pandemics

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