In Pursuit of the MD: The Impact of Role Models, Identity Compatibility, and Belonging Among Undergraduate Women

“This Table 3 Results of mediation testing using bootstrapping analyses (MEDIATE macro; Preacher and Hayes 2008) (N=55)”

“Perceived Identity Compatibility Participants completed the “Inclusion of Other in the Self” single-item measure, which has been used across many domains (e.g., Aron et al. 1992; Tropp and Wright 2001), including with women in STEM fields (London et al. 2011; Rosenthal et al. 2011a).”

“…educational context has been found in many previous studies to be a key factor that facilitates academic engagement, interest, and achievement in numerous fields of study for diverse students (Eccles et al. 1993; Finn 1989; Ostrove and Long 2007; Walker and Greene 2009; Walton and Cohen 2007).”

“Building on the literatures showing the critical importance of identity for the self (e.g., social identity theory; see Hogg and Abrams 1988; Tajfel and Turner 1979), perceived compatibility between women’s gender and career identities has been found to be a key variable that predicts better…”

“2011a; Settles 2004), and sense of belonging (e.g., Eccles et al. 1993; London et al. 2011; Rosenthal et al. 2011a; Walton and Cohen 2007) to help elucidate the processes or mechanisms involved in women’s pursuit of a medical career.”

“…educational context has been found in many previous studies to be a key factor that facilitates academic engagement, interest, and achievement in numerous fields of study for diverse students (Eccles et al. 1993; Finn 1989; Ostrove and Long 2007; Walker and Greene 2009; Walton and Cohen 2007).”

“…career identities has been found to be a key variable that predicts better performance and greater interest in remaining in non-traditional fields (e.g., Settles 2004; also see Cheryan et al. 2009; Eccles 2005; Else-Quest et al. 2010 internationally; Good et al. 2008; Shapiro and Williams 2012).”

“…models were perceived as similar to them (M=6.93, SD=1.99), inspiring (M=8.40, SD=2.05), and self-relevant (M=6.42, SD=2.38), which as noted above are three key features of effective role models that our biographies were aimed to target (see Lockwood and Kunda 1997 in Canada; Wohlford et al. 2004).”

“…career identities has been found to be a key variable that predicts better performance and greater interest in remaining in non-traditional fields (e.g., Settles 2004; also see Cheryan et al. 2009; Eccles 2005; Else-Quest et al. 2010 internationally; Good et al. 2008; Shapiro and Williams 2012).”

“…(indirect effect) tested work also extends prior research demonstrating the importance of perceived identity compatibility and sense of belonging (e.g., Settles 2006; Good et al. 2012) by identifying role models as a way of boosting these psychological factors that play an important role…”

“…build upon and integrate the aforementioned lines of work on same-gender role models (e.g., Lockwood and Kunda 1997 in Canada; Marx and Roman 2002; Stout et al. 2011), perceived identity compatibility (e.g., London et al. 2011; Rosenthal et al. 2011a; Settles 2004), and sense of belonging (e.g.,…”

“Exposure to female leaders (i.e., role models)—either through biographical information about famous female leaders, or through direct contact with female professors in courses —has been found to decrease female undergraduates’ gender stereotyping (Dasgupta and Asgari 2004).”

“Participants completed an established measure of sense of belonging developed with underrepresented groups (Mendoza-Denton et al. 2002), which has been used previously with women in STEM (London et al. 2011; Rosenthal et al. 2011a).”

“general engagement in those fields, including their selfefficacy in, identification with, and commitment to the domain (e.g., Lockwood and Kunda 1997 in Canada; Marx and Roman 2002; Stout et al. 2011).”

“Role models—people who exemplify success and achievement in a field (e.g., Lockwood 2006 in Canada)— have been found to be key in supporting and motivating people especially in pursuing careers in fields in which their group (e.g., race or gender group) is underrepresented.”

“…educational context has been found in many previous studies to be a key factor that facilitates academic engagement, interest, and achievement in numerous fields of study for diverse students (Eccles et al. 1993; Finn 1989; Ostrove and Long 2007; Walker and Greene 2009; Walton and Cohen 2007).”

“, social identity theory; see Hogg and Abrams 1988; Tajfel and Turner 1979), perceived compatibility between women’s gender and career identities has been found to be a key variable that predicts better performance and greater interest in remaining in non-traditional fields (e.g., Settles 2004; also see Cheryan et al.…”

“…Lockwood and Kunda 1997 in Canada; Marx and Roman 2002 in the U.S.), perceived identity compatibility between being a woman and being pre-med (e.g., London et al. 2011; Rosenthal et al. 2011a; Settles 2004 all in the U.S.), and sense of belonging in pre-med (e.g., Good et al. 2012 in the U.S.).”

“…career identities has been found to be a key variable that predicts better performance and greater interest in remaining in non-traditional fields (e.g., Settles 2004; also see Cheryan et al. 2009; Eccles 2005; Else-Quest et al. 2010 internationally; Good et al. 2008; Shapiro and Williams 2012).”

“For example, is perceived compatibility between one’s racial/ethnic group and one’s field a mechanism through which exposure to same-race role models can affect interest in a field? Among women of color, who have multiple marginalized identities in some non-traditional fields, in what ways do levels of perceived compa…”

“For example, in the Netherlands, men continue to hold the most senior medical positions (e.g., Pas et al. 2011), and in the U.S., men earn more than women do with comparable medical education and training (Lo Sasso et al. 2011).”

“Past work does suggest that undergraduate women face greater challenges to pursuing a pre-med track than men do, and that they do expect gender-based discrimination to affect their pursuit of a career in medicine (e.g., Barr et al. 2008; Paul 2006; Young et al. 2012).”

“…educational context has been found in many previous studies to be a key factor that facilitates academic engagement, interest, and achievement in numerous fields of study for diverse students (Eccles et al. 1993; Finn 1989; Ostrove and Long 2007; Walker and Greene 2009; Walton and Cohen 2007).”

“For example, a recent study in Switzerland found that female physicians were less likely to have a mentor than male physicians, but having a mentor was associated with greater career success (Stamm and Buddeberg-Fischer 2011).”

“…perceived identity compatibility (e.g., London et al. 2011; Rosenthal et al. 2011a; Settles 2004), and sense of belonging (e.g., Eccles et al. 1993; London et al. 2011; Rosenthal et al. 2011a; Walton and Cohen 2007) to help elucidate the processes or mechanisms involved in women’s pursuit of a…”

“Female STEM undergraduates perceiving greater compatibility between their gender and STEM major also have lower expectations of dropping out of their major before graduating (London et al. 2011; Rosenthal et al. 2011b), an indicator of sustained engagement.”

“…be perceived by women as being similar to their ingroup and their self, as elite female leaders that women do not identify with can have negative effects on women’s aspirations, self-perceptions, and stereotypes (e.g., Asgari et al. 2012; Hoyt and Simon 2011; Lockwood and Kunda 1997 in Canada).”

“…be perceived by women as being similar to their ingroup and their self, as elite female leaders that women do not identify with can have negative effects on women’s aspirations, self-perceptions, and stereotypes (e.g., Asgari et al. 2012; Hoyt and Simon 2011; Lockwood and Kunda 1997 in Canada).”

“…a distinct but related line of research on mentors (relevant people in one’s field who provide guidance and advice) suggests that mentors can help retain women and members of underrepresented racial/ethnic groups in non-traditional fields (e.g., BlakeBeard et al. 2011; Phinney et al. 2011).”

“Moreover, undergraduate students, graduate students, and women working in STEM careers who feel their gender and scientist identities are more compatible experience fewer depressive symptoms and perform better in their fields concurrently and 2 years later (Settles et al. 2009).”

“Research also suggests that in all areas of study, female students are more inspired by female role models than they are by male role models, while the gender of the role model does not matter for male students (e.g., Gilbert et al. 1983; Lockwood 2006 in Canada; Marx and Roman 2002).”

“Research also suggests that in all areas of study, female students are more inspired by female role models than they are by male role models, while the gender of the role model does not matter for male students (e.g., Gilbert et al. 1983; Lockwood 2006 in Canada; Marx and Roman 2002).”

“…including the U.S., women are increasingly pursuing previously male-dominated fields of study such as medicine; yet, women continue to face genderspecific challenges that threaten their interest and advancement in this field (e.g., see Riska 2011 for a review for North America and Western Europe).”

“And, female physicians and medical students report receiving less attention, support, and encouragement than their male peers, as well as experiencing sexual harassment and exposure to sexist jokes (e.g., Babaria et al. 2011; see Riska 2011 for a review for North America and Western Europe).”

“…of pursuing a nontraditional career can build up an accumulation of disadvantage that contributes to gender disparities in professional work (cf. Valian 2007), underscoring the importance of understanding these dynamics and improving women’s engagement at all levels, including undergraduate…”

“Female physicians report feeling a greater conflict between their work and home lives than do male physicians (e.g., Langballe et al. 2011 in Norway; Pas et al. 2011 in the Netherlands).”

“…not to perceive structural barriers such as discrimination to pursuing a career as a physician, expect to experience conflicts between pursuing a career as a physician and having a family, or expect negative reactions to this career choice because of gender stereotypes (Fiorentine and Cole 1992).”

“Despite this advance in numeric representation at the entry level of medical education, women continue to experience substantial disadvantages in comparison to men in medicine, as is the case in many other fields (Pratto and Walker 2004 internationally; Ryan et al. 2009 in North America and Europe).”

“Female STEM undergraduates perceiving greater compatibility between their gender and STEM major also have lower expectations of dropping out of their major before graduating (London et al. 2011; Rosenthal et al. 2011b), an indicator of sustained engagement.”

“For example, in a study of college students who were prescreened for interest in a premed academic focus, Rosenthal et al. (2013) found that exposure to successful female physicians through online biographies increased pre-med female undergraduate students’ interest and sense of belonging in…”

“While our review is operating with a broader notion of role models, the literature nevertheless reflects this narrower view: Many articles in our sample simply matched participants and role models in their demographics—specifically, gender and/or race/ ethnicity (Bamberger, 2014; Betz & Sekaquaptewa, 2012; Davis, 2001…”

“Indeed, one study with female psychology students who were interested in pursuing medical studies (Rosenthal et al., 2013) found that presenting brief biographies of five successful and diverse female physicians increased students’ identity compatibility, belonging, and their interest in pursuing a…”

“This suggests that successful female physician role models who were perceived as inspiring yet self-relevant and similar to the self, heightened undergraduate women’s perceived compatibility between being a woman and being a premed major (Rosenthal et al., 2013).”

“However, the majority of studies have investigated the belonging of groups underrepresented in STEM (Cheryan et al., 2009; Cheryan et al., 2011; Johnson, 2012; Rosenthal et al., 2013; Smith et al., 2013; Liptow et al., 2016; Blaney and Stout, 2017; Rattan et al., 2018) and the role of belonging in STEM achievement and…”

“…of these interventions show that reading biographies of successful female role models can have short-term benefits, such as improved sense of belonging or motivation to persist in STEM (Cheryan et al., 2011, 2013; Clark et al., 2016; Rosenthal et al., 2013; Shin et al., 2016; Young et al., 2013).”

“Indeed, the availability of role models has been shown to decrease identity incompatibility and increase individuals’ identification with a domain or role (e.g., Dasgupta, 2011; Rosenthal et al., 2013).”

“Recruiting and maintaining diversity in STEM domains has broad economic benefits (NSF, 2019), creates role models for STEM success that can promote engagement of new generations of women (Rosenthal et al., 2013), and reduces gender pay inequity, given that the pay differential in STEM domains is lower than in other do…”

“First, the ingroup is an important source of support (Correll & Park, 2005; Gaines, 2001; S. A. Haslam et al., 2005; Leach et al., 2010; Van Laar et al., 2014) and ingroup members can provide a buffer for identity threat (Levin et al., 2006; Richman et al., 2011; Rosenthal et al., 2013).”

“Sense of belonging has been shown to be important for career interest (Rosenthal et al., 2013), academic achievement (Walton and Cohen, 2007), motivation (Smith et al.”

“, 2020), the curriculum (Dewsbury and Brame, 2019), and role models within a field (Drury et al., 2011; Rosenthal et al., 2013), among others.”

“This perceived identity incompatibility has been shown to be a factor in the attrition of science students (Rosenthal et al., 2011, 2013; Good et al., 2012).”

“For medical students in general, exposure to role models is associated with developing their professional identity [16, 17], an academic sense of belonging [18, 19], permeating the hidden curriculum [20] and their choice of clinical field for residency training [21–24].”

“…the importance of increased representation of LGBTQ + individuals in academic STEM, namely because representation in a field has been shown to help develop a sense of belonging among underrepresented individuals (Rosenthal et al. , 2013; Linley et al. , 2016; Harm-sen, 2018; Rainey et al. , 2018).”

“Research shows that female mentors and role models are especially important for female students’ career aspirations in STEM (Herrmann et al., 2016; Rosenthal et al., 2013; Stout et al., 2011).”

“(Charter, S18) The effect of the racial or ethnic matching is that it demonstrates to the students that engineers can look like them—and that people such as themselves can be engineers (Alston et al., 2017; Mondisa, 2018; Rosenthal et al., 2013; Shin et al., 2016; Young et al., 2013).”

“of competence, belonging, and a pursuit of scientific careers (Hernandez et al., 2018; Stout et al., 2011; Rosenthal et al., 2013).”

“…seeing “people like me” in leadership positions can provide crucial signals of belonging for marginalized group members (Johnson et al., 2019; Rosenthal et al., 2013), which can help counteract the many signals marginalized scholars face on a daily basis suggesting they do not belong in a…”

“Females within medicine feel a stronger sense of belonging and career compatibility when they have other females within their field.(21) Examinations of other surgical fields, such as general surgery and orthopedic surgery, demonstrate that presence of a female role”

“Research conducted in several countries (e.g., Lapeyre & Le Feuvre 2005; Linehan et al., 2013; Rosende, 2008; Rosenthal et al., 2013) shows that women continue to experience substantial disadvantages in comparison to men, and to work more in part time, while men occupy the higher status positions…”

“Gender seems to play a role in the development of professional identity among female medical doctors [32,33].”

“− 2016 Higher education research on college STEM-M persistence has acknowledged role models and mentorship as important elements for achieving STEM-M pathways to graduation (Rosenthal et al., 2013; Sahin et al., 2018).”

“STEM interest is operationalized as interest in pursuing a STEM major as well as interest in pursuing a STEM career (Rosenthal et al., 2013).”

“According to Schinske et al. (2016), after exposure to Scientist Spotlights, students were more likely to use phrases, such as “like me” or “I am al-so…”, that made connections between their own identity and that of the featured scientists.”

“Prior work has shown that undergraduates with the same identity as instructors can have improved sense of belonging (Rosenthal et al. , 2013; Linley et al. , 2016; Harmsen, 2018; Rainey et al. , 2018) and self-efficacy (Cotner et al. , 2011; Stout et al. , 2011; Shin et al. , 2016).”

“Research examining sense of belonging in a general premedical context suggest it may mediate interest in continued premedical study by gender (Rosenthal et al., 2013), while studies in a Calculus-based Physics course have shown belonging to be equally associated with higher grades for both men and women (Stout et al.”

“Drawing from social psychology, research suggests that individuals getting in touch with similar people who succeed in a certain domain develop more positive attitudes concerning their own success (Dasgupta, 2011; Morgenroth et al., 2021; Rosenthal et al., 2013).”

“…crux of leadership is rooted in influence, this finding somewhat surprising as the literature consistently points to the glaring lack of females in leadership positions in professional and academic medicine (Morahan et al. 2011; Rosenthal et al. 2013; Valantine & Sandborg 2013; Bell et al. 2014).”

“The social environment has been demonstrated to influence information about certain individual qualities such as a sense of belonging and self-efficacy (Rosenthal et al., 2013; Stout et al., 2011).”

“This underscores the signi fi cance of female role models in breaking down gender stereotypes (see Asgari et al., 2012; Riegle-Crumb & Morton, 2017; Rosenthal et al., 2013).”

“When pre-med undergraduate women students are exposed to other women in medicine, they feel a greater sense of belonging and have higher perceived identity for themselves in these roles (Rosenthal et al., 2013).”

“However, this research has primarily targeted the role of professional mentors as mitigators for these concerns (e.g., Apriceno et al., 2020; Hund et al., 2018; Rosenthal et al., 2013), as opposed to the support from significant family and peers.”

“4,82 – 84 Additionally, rural upbringing, positive rural experience and rural placement duration have been shown to correlate with future rural practise, serving as the basis of many of the existing rural medical recruitment strategies.”

“Existing literature underscores the role of psychological experience (e.g.sense of belonging, identity, self-efficacy belief) in shaping learners’ aspirations to strive further along the STEM trajectory [25].”

“The effects of these components have been evidenced in previous literature (McCleary, 2014; Rosenthal et al., 2013; Sun et al., 2019; Wurtele & Maruyama, 2013).”

“Intentions to leave STEM, switch majors, and leave the university were assessed using three separate subcategories in order to evaluate exactly where students are thinking of going when considering leaving their current STEM major (derived from Rosenthal et al., 2013; Shin et al., 2016).”

“Girls/women who are exposed to successful women in STEM fields are more likely to do well in STEM classes, feel a greater sense of belonging among their STEM classmates and colleagues, and are more likely to have career aspirations geared towards science [8,9,10].”

“Female role models also increase identity compatibility and sense of belonging (Rosenthal et al. 2013).”

“The perception of fit or compatibility between key identities has implications for interest and engagement (Rosenthal et al., 2013).”

“Diverse students feel included in the STEM classroom when they see themselves in diverse scholars who are part of the curriculum (9, 10).”

“Perceived identity compatibility — seeing oneself reflected in a role model — plays a crucial role in this process [16].”

“It is widely accepted that role models do have an effect, negative or positive, on behavior and on health (Rosenthal et al, 2013; Lockwood et al. 2002).”