The DOI matches its Crossref record; 36 of the 36 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Gender and doctoral studies: the perceptions of Ph.D. students in an American university
Abstract
Twenty students enrolled in Ph.D. programmes were interviewed to examine the role of gender in their academic experiences. Gender was examined in three ways: gender of the student, gender of the student’s faculty supervisor and gender make‐up of the faculty within the student’s department or academic unit. All students reported the importance of supportive faculty mentors and that financial worries, time pressure and the uncertainty of future employment were sources of stress. Family formation and striving toward personal as well as professional goals were particularly of concern for women, as were perceptions of differential treatment. Women students valued women faculty mentors, although female faculty were perceived as less supportive than male faculty of family concerns when these women had themselves sacrificed family formation for the sake of their careers. Both men and women experienced less stress and reported greater career commitment when faculty in their departments exhibited less traditional values regarding the balancing of personal and professional goals. The implications of these findings for reducing doctoral student attrition rates and for creating a more supportive environment for Ph.D. students are discussed.
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“The few studies on PhD students suggest that stress may stem from various problems in the PhD process, such as problems concerning one's own learning, different aspects of insecurity (financial insecurity, insecurity concerning unwritten rules), frequent evaluation, competitive atmosphere, supervision, relationships to faculty and peers, workload and work-life interface (Appel and Dahlgren, 2003;K”
From Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students (2017) · cites this paper as Kurtz-Costes et al., 2006
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Metadata
- Authors
- Kurtz‐Costes, B., Andrews Helmke, L., & Ülkü‐Steiner, B.
- Affiliations
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (US)
- Corresponding author
- Kurtz‐Costes, Beth
- ORCID
- Kurtz‐Costes, Beth
- Venue
- Gender and Education
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2006-03
- Volume
- 18
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 137-155
- ISSN
- 0954-0253 (ISSN-L)
- 1360-0516
- OpenAlex
- W2009639664
- Cited by
- 167
- References
- 36
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 20 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 10 · 2012: 7
- FWCI
- 7.01
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Gender and Education (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Doctoral Education Challenges and Solutions
- Social Sciences › Education › Higher Education Research Studies
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Work-Family Balance Challenges
- Keywords
- gender, doctoral students, faculty mentoring, women in academia, work-family balance, academic stress, doctoral attrition, career commitment, gender discrimination
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