Cargando…
Equity for women and underrepresented minorities in STEM: Graduate experiences and career plans in chemistry
Recent events prompted scientists in the United States and throughout the world to consider how systematic racism affects the scientific enterprise. This paper provides evidence of inequities related to race–ethnicity and gender in graduate school experiences and career plans of PhD students in the...
Autores principales: | , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
National Academy of Sciences
2021
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7848687/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33431653 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2020508118 |
_version_ | 1783645186417491968 |
---|---|
author | Stockard, Jean Rohlfing, Celeste M. Richmond, Geraldine L. |
author_facet | Stockard, Jean Rohlfing, Celeste M. Richmond, Geraldine L. |
author_sort | Stockard, Jean |
collection | PubMed |
description | Recent events prompted scientists in the United States and throughout the world to consider how systematic racism affects the scientific enterprise. This paper provides evidence of inequities related to race–ethnicity and gender in graduate school experiences and career plans of PhD students in the top 100 ranked departments in one science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) discipline, chemistry. Mixed-model regression analyses were used to examine factors that might moderate these differences. The results show that graduate students who identified as a member of a racial/ethnic group traditionally underrepresented in chemistry (underrepresented minorities, URM) were significantly less likely than other students to report that their financial support was sufficient to meet their needs. They were also less likely to report having supportive relationships with peers and postdocs. Women, and especially URM women, were significantly less likely to report supportive relationships with advisors. Despite their more negative experiences in graduate school, students who identified as URM expressed greater commitment to finishing their degree and staying in the field. When there was at least one faculty member within their departments who also identified as URM they were also more likely than other students to aspire to a university professorship with an emphasis on research. Men were significantly more likely than women to express strong commitment to finishing the PhD and remaining in chemistry, but this difference was stronger in top-ranked departments. Men were also more likely than women to aspire to a professorship with an emphasis on research, and this difference remained when individual and departmental-level variables were controlled. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7848687 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | National Academy of Sciences |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-78486872021-02-09 Equity for women and underrepresented minorities in STEM: Graduate experiences and career plans in chemistry Stockard, Jean Rohlfing, Celeste M. Richmond, Geraldine L. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Social Sciences Recent events prompted scientists in the United States and throughout the world to consider how systematic racism affects the scientific enterprise. This paper provides evidence of inequities related to race–ethnicity and gender in graduate school experiences and career plans of PhD students in the top 100 ranked departments in one science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) discipline, chemistry. Mixed-model regression analyses were used to examine factors that might moderate these differences. The results show that graduate students who identified as a member of a racial/ethnic group traditionally underrepresented in chemistry (underrepresented minorities, URM) were significantly less likely than other students to report that their financial support was sufficient to meet their needs. They were also less likely to report having supportive relationships with peers and postdocs. Women, and especially URM women, were significantly less likely to report supportive relationships with advisors. Despite their more negative experiences in graduate school, students who identified as URM expressed greater commitment to finishing their degree and staying in the field. When there was at least one faculty member within their departments who also identified as URM they were also more likely than other students to aspire to a university professorship with an emphasis on research. Men were significantly more likely than women to express strong commitment to finishing the PhD and remaining in chemistry, but this difference was stronger in top-ranked departments. Men were also more likely than women to aspire to a professorship with an emphasis on research, and this difference remained when individual and departmental-level variables were controlled. National Academy of Sciences 2021-01-26 2021-01-11 /pmc/articles/PMC7848687/ /pubmed/33431653 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2020508118 Text en Copyright © 2021 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | Social Sciences Stockard, Jean Rohlfing, Celeste M. Richmond, Geraldine L. Equity for women and underrepresented minorities in STEM: Graduate experiences and career plans in chemistry |
title | Equity for women and underrepresented minorities in STEM: Graduate experiences and career plans in chemistry |
title_full | Equity for women and underrepresented minorities in STEM: Graduate experiences and career plans in chemistry |
title_fullStr | Equity for women and underrepresented minorities in STEM: Graduate experiences and career plans in chemistry |
title_full_unstemmed | Equity for women and underrepresented minorities in STEM: Graduate experiences and career plans in chemistry |
title_short | Equity for women and underrepresented minorities in STEM: Graduate experiences and career plans in chemistry |
title_sort | equity for women and underrepresented minorities in stem: graduate experiences and career plans in chemistry |
topic | Social Sciences |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7848687/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33431653 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2020508118 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT stockardjean equityforwomenandunderrepresentedminoritiesinstemgraduateexperiencesandcareerplansinchemistry AT rohlfingcelestem equityforwomenandunderrepresentedminoritiesinstemgraduateexperiencesandcareerplansinchemistry AT richmondgeraldinel equityforwomenandunderrepresentedminoritiesinstemgraduateexperiencesandcareerplansinchemistry |