Women Graduate Students in Mathematics and Physics: Reflections on Success

Hollenshead, Carol; Soellner-Younce, Patricia; Wenzel, Stacy A.

doi:10.1615/jwomenminorscieneng.v1.i1.50

Cited by 24 publications

(38 citation statements)

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“…For example, in studies conducted in these countries, undergraduate women in STEM majors often report feelings of isolation, intimidation, and even hostility from male peers as well as male professors, and they often have lower self-confidence in STEM domains than men, despite equal or even higher levels of achievement (e.g., Erwin and Maurutto 1998;Ferreira 2003;Hollenshead et al 1994;Meinholdt and Murray 1999;Warrington and Younger 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Roles of Perceived Identity Compatibility and Social Support for Women in a Single-Sex STEM Program at a Co-educational University

et al. 2011

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Single-sex programs have been implemented in a variety of educational settings to help promote greater engagement of women in STEM fields. However, the mechanisms through which single-sex programs increase women's engagement in STEM fields are unclear. Drawing from research in social and health psychology, we examined two theoretically-guided predictors of women's sense of belonging in their STEM majors and belonging at the university: perceived identity compatibility between being a woman and being in a STEM field, and perceived social support. Participants were 65 racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse women enrolled in a single-sex STEM program at a co-educational university in Northeastern United States. Participants completed online surveys before the start of their first year of college, and again at the beginning of their second year of college. Findings from multiple regression analyses support hypotheses that across STEM women's first or transitional year of college, perceived identity compatibility, perceived support from close others, and perceived support from the single-sex program for STEM women were each independently associated with greater sense of belonging in their major. Additionally, perceived identity compatibility and perceived support from the single-sex program were associated with greater sense of belonging at the university. These findings suggest that perceived support from sources such as singlesex programs and perceived compatibility between one's field and being female may sustain women pursuing training in nontraditional fields such as STEM. Continued investigation of these factors may elucidate the impact of single-sex programs and inform interventions to increase the retention of women in STEM.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Roles of Perceived Identity Compatibility and Social Support for Women in a Single-Sex STEM Program at a Co-educational University

et al. 2011

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“…For example, in the realm of power and influence, we have moved gradually from a focus on the ways women's behavior should change in order for them to exert influence successfully (e.g., assertiveness training) to explorations of the ways women's personal inclinations toward leadership can be trumped by gendered context (Megargee 1969;Nyquist and Spence 1986;Lips and Keener 2007), and ways women's attempts at leadership in some contexts can be ignored (Porter and Geis 1981), undermined (Butler and Geis 1990), or leave women open to disparagement and/or hostility (Carli 1999;Rudman 1998). In the realm of cognitive abilities and achievement, the field has moved from a fairly narrow focus on whether and why girls and women might have weaker mathematical ability than boys and men (e.g., Benbow and Stanley 1980) to sophisticated explorations of the several interlocking abilities necessary to mathematical thinking (Spelke 2005) and of the subtle contextual variables, such as stereotype threat (Spencer et al 1999), negative expectations (Fredericks and Eccles 2002;Ma 2001), anticipation of career-family conflict (Singer et al 2005), lack of role models (Marx and Roman 2002) and of mentoring and social support (Hollenshead et al 1994), and erosion of the sense of opportunity and possibility (Lips 2004) that act as barriers to girls and women in the pursuit of mathematics and the sciences.…”

Section: A Changing Fieldmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stalking a Moving Target: Thirty Years of Summarizing a Changing Field for Changing Students

Lips

2010

Sex Roles

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For more than thirty years, I have been engaged in writing textbooks on the psychology of women and gender. During that time, the field has expanded dramatically and shifted in focus in a number of ways. There has been growing attention to the tension between emphasizing gender differences and similarities, an increasing focus on examining gendered behavior in the light of contextual variables, and a rising awareness of within-gender differences. The student population has changed too, becoming less patient with reading, more technologically oriented, and sometimes less likely to self-define as feminist. Meanwhile, the textbook publishing industry has become increasingly consolidated into a few massive companies. The current article presents a personal perspective on some of these developments, as well as some predictions for the future.

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“…Individual factors found to inhibit the participation and integration of women and students of color into mathematics included (a) a need for interaction, att ention, and reinforcement (e.g., Etzkowitz, Kemelgor, & Uzzi, 2000;Fennema & Peterson, 1985); (b) a need for a structure centered on student development instead of "fi ltering out" (e.g., Ames, 1992); (c) a lack of confi dence (e.g., Etzkowitz et al, 2000;Sonnert & Holton, 1995); and (d) a sense of confl ict with family responsibilities. Relational factors found to inhibit the participation and integration of women and students of color into mathematics included (a) a transmission model of pedagogy (e.g., Rogoff , 1994); (b) incompatible relationships with advisors (e.g., Girves & Wemmerus, 1988;Hollenshead et al, 1994;Sonnert & Holton, 1995); (c) patt erns of isolation (e.g., Etzkowitz et al, 2000;Herzig, 2002;Hollenshead et al, 1994); and (d) a sense of competition.…”

Section: Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…One factor contributing to this underrepresentation of women is the graduate-school experience (Ferreira, 2003;Hirt & Muff o, 1998). The "chilly climate" uncovered by Hall and Sandler (1982) in a study of att rition of undergraduate women in science also is experienced by women in graduate school (Dresselhaus, Franz, & Clark, 1995;Ferreira, 2003;Hollenshead, Soellner-Younce, & Wenzel, 1994).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Self‐definition of women experiencing a nontraditional graduate fellowship program

Buck

Leslie‐Pelecky

et al. 2006

J Res Sci Teach

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Women continue to be underrepresented in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). One factor contributing to this underrepresentation is the graduate school experience. Graduate programs in STEM fields are constructed around assumptions that ignore the reality of women's lives; however, emerging opportunities may lead to experiences that are more compatible for women. One such opportunity is the Graduate Teaching Fellows in K–12 Education (GK–12) Program, which was introduced by the National Science Foundation in 1999. Although this nontraditional graduate program was not designed explicitly for women, it provided an unprecedented context in which to research how changing some of the basic assumptions upon which a graduate school operates may impact women in science. This exploratory case study examines the self‐definition of 8 women graduate students who participated in a GK–12 program at a major research university. The findings from this case study contribute to higher education's understanding of the terrain women graduate students in the STEM areas must navigate as they participate in programs that are thought to be more conducive to their modes of self‐definition while they continue to seek to be successful in the historically Eurocentric, masculine STEM fields. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 43: 852–873, 2006

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Women Graduate Students in Mathematics and Physics: Reflections on Success

Cited by 24 publications

References 0 publications

The Roles of Perceived Identity Compatibility and Social Support for Women in a Single-Sex STEM Program at a Co-educational University

The Roles of Perceived Identity Compatibility and Social Support for Women in a Single-Sex STEM Program at a Co-educational University

Stalking a Moving Target: Thirty Years of Summarizing a Changing Field for Changing Students

Self‐definition of women experiencing a nontraditional graduate fellowship program

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