Plugging the Leaky Pipeline:A Qualitative Investigation of Untenured Female Faculty in STEM

Abstract

The current study set out to highlight the voices and stories of 129 female-identifying assistant professors in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) who responded to open-ended questions regarding their perceived barriers, supports, and experiences on their journey toward tenure. The current study utilized Consensual Qualitative Research-Modified (CQR-M; Spangler et al., 2012 ) for the methodology and data analysis, as the current study included a relatively large number of women and brief qualitative data. Responses fell into four domains: barriers, supports, needed resources, and miscellaneous responses. Additionally, responses were compared between women in STEM fields with higher percentages of female faculty versus STEM fields with lower percentages of female faculty, with results indicating that women in STEM fields with lower gender equality reported more gender discrimination, more difficult colleagues, and less institutional or administrative supports and policies. Future directions and clinical implications are discussed.

“I Need A Break or I Might Quit”: STEM Academics’ Pandemic Experiences

“…Women mentors and support from colleagues generally provide important sources of support for faculty (Ysseldyk et al, 2019). For women faculty in STEM, mentor and colleague support offers valuable emotional care and assistance for work-related tasks (Gregor et al, 2022), and long-lasting mentoring relationships with other women may provide a supportive space to discuss work-family balance and experiences of sexism (Dunn et al, 2022). Further, institutional support for work-life balance and having a family has been found to predict job satisfaction and workplace belonging (Moors et al, 2014), as well as career aspirations for STEM women faculty (Gregor et al, 2021).…”

“…Experiences of sexism also serve as a barrier for women in tenure-track STEM faculty positions. Women have reported exposure to sexist stereotypes (Gregor et al, 2022; Ysseldyk et al, 2019), and for women of Color, harmful racial stereotypes (Charleston et al, 2014; Kachchaf et al, 2015). Women in STEM faculty positions have also expressed concerns about fairness and perceived sexism in tenure decisions (Bartel et al, 2017; Riffle et al, 2013), as well as unfair distribution of department or university resources favoring men (Bartel et al, 2017).…”

“…Further, institutional support for work–life balance and having a family has been found to predict job satisfaction and workplace belonging (Moors et al, 2014), as well as career aspirations for STEM women faculty (Gregor et al, 2021). In a qualitative study on tenure experiences for women faculty in STEM, general supportiveness of department and college leadership toward tenure, and a sense that those in leadership want them to succeed was also described as important (Gregor et al, 2022).…”

“…Women without children have also experienced diminished productivity and engaged in more unpaid domestic labor than they did prepandemic (King & Frederickson, 2021). In the face of amplified gendered expectations, women in the STEM academy have grappled with the incompatibility between being a scientist and being a woman (Gregor et al, 2022) and coped with guilt over an inability to meet demands in multiple roles (Walters et al, 2021). The resulting negative mental health outcomes have implications for the personal well-being of these junior academics, as well as their persistence in the academy (Lufler & McNulty, 2022).…”

“…The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated existing marginalization and economic constraints for academic women in STEM, thus impacting access to decent work (Autin et al, 2020). For example, experiences of sexism and racism within academic institutions evoke a lack of safety in work environments and create barriers to the career accomplishments necessary for tenure and promotion (e.g., Domingo et al, 2022; Gregor et al, 2022; Ysseldyk et al, 2019). Previous qualitative research with this population also highlighted exacerbated marginalization across the work–family interface, as work and family roles interfere with each other to the detriment of both domains (Dunn et al, 2022).…”