Despite decades of national efforts to increase students' participation and success in STEM, bachelor's degrees in STEM continue to notably lag the labor force demand. Asian students represent one group that disproportionately contributes to the share of STEM degrees. Understanding their experiences can help to illuminate ways of increasing STEM…

This study leverages a policy change in the missionary program of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that exogenously influenced the likelihood that a woman took gap time during college to understand how gap time influences women's subsequent choice of major and academic outcomes. If structured gap time shapes educational outcomes,…

With projections from the Australian federal government indicating an impending exacerbation of the teacher shortage by 2025, it is timely to explore potential approaches that could help mitigate this imminent national crisis. In teaching, there is an historical tendency for the teaching profession to attract more women than men and this study…

Women seeking higher education frequently do so during peak childbearing years and women with higher levels of education are more likely to postpone motherhood until a later age. Fertility rate, defined as the average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime, has decreased globally. The decrease in birthrate has been partially…

The United States faces challenges in retaining students of color (SoC), women, and nonbinary individuals in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). This study explores the impact of a residential bridge program on STEM persistence for these groups. Participants, who were all women or nonbinary individuals and were 56% SoC and 30%…

This study examines the challenges of female doctoral students in China at the intersection of neoliberal education and Confucian gender roles. Employing qualitative interviews with 12 students, it explores how they navigate academic pressures and societal expectations. Leveraging Margaret Archer's reflexivity theory, key findings show that these…

This study considered the influence of National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) sorority membership on graduation rate and time-to-degree. Data from women at 18 four-year postsecondary institutions comprised the dataset (n = 2,104 members, 2,139 nonmembers). Findings showed members had a higher graduation rate and were more likely than non-members to…

In this article, the authors examine the experiences that contribute to the delayed completion of doctoral programs among Black women. Building upon prevailing applications of doctoral student socialization, this study explores the ways race and gender intersect to shape the graduate school experiences of Black women pursuing EdD and PhD degrees.…

The purpose of this institutional ethnography was to better understand the experiences of undergraduate women in math and physics in order to identify and explore the institutional practices that coordinated their daily work. Through the framework of feminist standpoint theory, I collected student and faculty interviews, observations, and textual…

Doctoral programs in the humanities and humanistic social sciences contend with relatively lower graduation rates and longer duration to degree. While reforming graduate education can include changes to financial aid awards and program requirements, enhancements in the area of advising can also improve student educational experiences and outcomes…

The purpose of this study was to explore the factors that contributed to the academic success of Haitian-American women. This study was also conducted to determine if factors attributed to by academically successful Haitian women are related to selected demographic characteristics. Two hundred and thirteen Haitian women selected from the National…

Pathways through college vary by sex in ways that may contribute to the contemporary male-female gap in college graduation that favors women. Although past research has documented sex differences in college pathways, little research has investigated the underlying causes of this variation. Using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study,…

This article describes the results of a report released last week by the Council of Graduate Schools. The report, "Ph.D. Completion and Attrition: Analysis of Baseline Demographic Data From the Ph.D. Completion Project," is based on data from 24 universities in the United States and Canada. According to this report, women and members of…

Using survey and qualitative data, this study identified emergent themes that remain consistent across or differentiate among reports of women earning their doctoral degree relatively quickly ("early-finishers") and those taking considerably longer ("late-finishers"). Emergent themes included commitment to timely degree completion, faculty…

A study of degree completion rates, time taken to earn degrees, and final academic standing in two universities showed wide variation between faculty and academic department, between the universities, between males and females, and between direct entry and transfer students. Assessment of the impact of rising admissions standards is recommended.…