Improving STEM Doctoral Students' Relationships with their Advisors: Web-Based Training in Interpersonal Problem-Solving Skills

摘要

All graduate students, regardless of discipline, gender, or ethnicity, encounter an array of social, economic and academic factors that influence their decision to persist in graduate programs. In STEM fields where women are already underrepresented, any factor that may interfere with their degree completion warrants attention. The retention of women doctoral students in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs continues to be a problem. Recent outcome data from the Council of Graduate Schools confirms that rates of attrition are significantly higher for women than men across all doctoral programs and gender is the strongest predictor of graduate school completion In the physical sciences and engineering, attrition is most common within the first three years While women represent 22% of the doctoral students in engineering, they receive only 17% of the doctorates; the dropout rate for women is roughly twice that of male PhD students in the same fields Additionally, even women who persist through their doctoral program remain unlikely to actually embark on a career in science or engineering; 36.5% of women with degrees in science, compared to 27.4% of men, never begin science careers.