Table of Contents
Foreword.
A Note from the Auhtors.
Preface.
Acknowledgments.
Introduction.
The Journey.
Potential Storms.
The Final Destination: After the Ph.D.
Bibliography and References.
Web Resources.
Index.
About the Authors.
Forewords & Introductions
A BRIEF HISTORY OF WOMEN AND THE PH.D.
Depending on your field, you may be among a very small minority of the doctoral
students in your science or engineering department. But just over 100 years ago,
you would not have been formally admitted at all to the doctoral programs at any
university in the United States. The reasons given for not accepting women ranged
from those based on bad social science to silly medical science. University adminis-trators—
and society at large—espoused the view that such education would be
wasted on women since they would soon be married and busy raising children.
Some “scientists” of that time even believed that studying drew away blood neces-sary
for menstruation and pregnancy, thus hampering a woman’s procreation abili-ties
(Caplan, 1994). But even after such ridiculous arguments had been debunked,
universities could still offer one final—and unarguable—excuse: there was no
precedent for accepting women.
Although women at that time weren’t being formally accepted into graduate
school, many did find ways to get in, usually as “special” or nondegree students.
For example, in 1870 Ellen Swallow Richards applied to the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology for a graduate degree in chemistry, but was instead admitted as a
“special student” who was seeking a second bachelor’s degree (her first one was
from Vassar). It was argued that the Chemistry Department didn’t want its first
graduate degree to be awarded to a woman (Rossiter, 1982). The difficult part, it
seemed, was actually being awarded a degree for the work done. One of the most
infamous examples of this discrimination is the case of mathematician Christine
Ladd-Franklin, who completed her dissertation in 1882 at Johns Hopkins University
but was not awarded her degree until 44 years later (Rossiter, 1982).
It wasn’t until 1890 that women could officially enter graduate school in the
United States, and then only a handful of universities allowed them. Over the fol-lowing
decades, more universities opened their doors to women doctoral students,
but many barriers still remained, especially in the historically male rampart of science and engineering. This tradition of exclusion of women in these fields becomes
easier to understand, however, when one examines the history of the disciplines.
Even with over a century of U.S. graduate experience under our belts, women’s
involvement in the academy is still relatively new, and our official acceptance into
science and engineering programs infantile. In the Middle Ages, European universi-ties
were created largely to teach theology, medicine, and law—professions that
were not open to women. There were a few remarkable exceptions (such as Laura
Bassi, who received her doctorate in 1733 and was a physics professor at the Uni-versity
of Bologna), and of course, the countless—and not so famous—numbers of
women throughout the ages who studied and practiced science and engineering in
whatever way they could. For the most part, however, women just weren’t welcome
in these professions (Ambrose et al., 1997).
Science’s parameters—established by Descartes and Francis Bacon—have
been blamed by some scholars for alienating women. Descartes pronounced that ob-jectivity
in science required a separation of logic from emotion (the “mind–body
problem”). Bacon “declared that the purpose of science was for man to conquer and
control nature for his [own] benefit” (Ambrose et al., 1997). Some writers hold that
these tenets—and the scientific culture built upon them—have served to exclude
women from the official scientific community in the past.
Engineering was even more exclusionary, due to its inception from a military
model. In the 1400s, the word “engineering” (from the Latin word for “to contrive”)
was used to describe the design of devices for warfare. Thus, an engineer was a man
who employed skills to build machines of war. Even when engineering took on the
qualifier “civil” to denote its nonmilitary applications, it remained a man’s domain.
Although formal science and engineering education has long been the realm of
men, even nonmilitary male students weren’t able to formally study engineering in
the United States until 1824 when the Rensselaer School (now Rensselaer Polytech-nic
Institute) was established (Grayson, 1977). The first doctorate ever earned in the
United States wasn’t awarded until 1861, when Yale granted one to a man in science.
This brings us back to the late nineteenth century, when women started to
sneak in the back door of graduate programs and slowly but surely began to break
down the barriers that had kept them out.
This is just a brief look at how women fit into the bigger picture of the doctor-ate
in science and engineering. This background, however, gives us a basis on
which to examine the current situation for women seeking their doctorates in those
fields.
WHAT IT’S LIKE NOW
The National Science Foundation reports that women are currently earning the ma-jority
of bachelor’s and master’s degrees overall, but in 1998 earned just 40% of the
doctorates in science and only 13% of those in engineering (National Science Foundation, 2000). More than a century after Christine Ladd-Franklin was denied a doc-torate,
these and other recent numbers make it clear: many women scientists and en-gineers
face challenges throughout their careers simply because they are women.
These challenges are compounded for women of color, lesbians, differently abled,
and economically disadvantaged women. Most fields are male dominated at every
level, and female mentors and role models are few. Doctoral work is certainly no
exception, and it is only a first hurdle along the journey to a fulfilling career.
For the last 20 years, the United States has faced a critical shortage of scientists
and engineers with doctoral degrees in a number of fields. Even in areas where ab-solute
numbers are not an issue, there are real equity concerns. The number of
women working and studying in the scientific and technical fields is markedly
lower than the number of men. To help all individuals reach their potential and to
remain competitive into the next century, it is fundamental that the United States re-cruit
from our entire population and that we support greater numbers of women in
scientific and technical Ph.D. programs.
Read a Sample Chapter
The Woman's Guide to Navigating the Ph.D. in Engineering & Science
By Barbara B. Lazarus Lisa M. Ritter Susan A. Ambrose John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0-7803-6037-0
Chapter One
INTRODUCTION WHAT IS DOCTORAL EDUCATION?
The Ph.D. Program
The Demands of Doctoral Work
Why Some Women Find Doctoral Work More Than Demanding
How to Make It
The fundamental purpose of a doctoral program is to help you become a professional who generates ideas within an extremely specialized field. As an undergraduate, you probably spent most of your time reading and writing about established theories and research. You were required to learn existing knowledge. By contrast, doctoral study will challenge your ability to learn in a completely different way. It focuses study in one discipline, and it requires that you conduct original research and formulate your own theories. Whether explicitly stated or not, as a doctoral student you will be expected to create new knowledge.
Graduate school should also be considered an intensive training process. During the course of your doctoral work, you become an expert in your field. Many of you will learn how to become faculty members; others, professional researchers and practitioners in the private sector, the public sector, or other nonprofit organizations. The work you do now will begin to establish your credibility as an authority on your chosen subject.
The Ph.D. Program
The highest degree awarded by academic graduate programs is a doctorate. Although there are many legitimate "doctoral" degrees-such as the J.D., Juris Doctor for lawyers; Ed.D., Doctor of Education; Pharm.D., Doctor of Pharmacy; and Th.D., Doctor of Theology for religious ministers-the recognized research degree for the liberal arts, the sciences, and engineering is the Ph.D. (or, in some institutions, the Sc.D.).
A Ph.D. has the following basic requirements:
Residency in an approved program of study.
Proficiency in a prescribed body of knowledge within a specific field.
Proven ability to perform independent investigation on a significant problem within a specific field, the evidence of which is the presentation and defense of a dissertation on an original piece of research.
Some doctoral programs incorporate a master's degree into the course of study for a Ph.D. (Some require completing a master's degree before entering the program.) A student enrolls in the program after undergraduate school, receives a master's degree in the first year or two of study, and then continues working toward the Ph.D. In many departments, however, the Ph.D. process is separate from the M.S. process, and the M.S. is not necessarily a prerequisite for the Ph.D.
The typical degree program lasts approximately four to six years and incorporates courses in your chosen field of study with research. You build on your course work and original research to write a dissertation that is presented and defended before a faculty committee. This is a much abbreviated description of what happens; greater detail is presented throughout this guide.
The Demands of Doctoral Work
You've probably already heard how tough doctoral work is-how demanding the schedule is, how long it takes, and how the workload gets heavier with each passing term. All of this is true-and then some. In fact, doctoral work may be one of the most challenging experiences of your life to date. It can also be one of the most rewarding. If you know what to expect and if you have a solid knowledge base and skills for survival, you will be better prepared to meet its challenges and reap its rewards.
You have to understand that there are few standard rules in graduate school. Requirements and expectations vary among schools, departments, and disciplines. Some institutions have no central graduate school that handles admission and administrative policies and procedures; each college, department, or program within the university may have its own requirements for admission and completion of a graduate degree. Other schools, often larger universities, have formal graduate schools with requirements for admission and graduation that apply to every graduate student. Individual departments and programs may have their own requirements in addition to the graduate school's; however, for admission and graduation, each student must meet the minimum standards.
Creating new knowledge is the most exciting thing about a Ph.D.; your Ph.D. program is designed to help you develop the skills necessary to create that knowledge. The first few terms of your program, through classes and meetings with your advisor, help you discover where your research interests lie. Your course work and qualifying exams are designed to provide you with the theory and research tools necessary to develop "ownership" of knowledge. Finally, through planning and writing a dissertation, you can begin to outline and explore research questions of your own.
Apart from academic requirements, doctoral work can also place enormous demands on your self-confidence. Graduate courses are typically much harder than undergraduate courses. Overwhelming duties like developing a research study, teaching classes, and writing and defending a dissertation can all place great stress and strain on your mental faculties. Doubting yourself and your ability to survive is perfectly natural. You may ask yourself questions like, "Can I discipline myself to write a major paper? Will I ever create something new? Do I have what it takes to make a significant contribution in my area? What do my advisors and committees think of me?" Recognizing that stress and self-doubt are a natural part of any significant experience, including graduate school, tends to help.
Why Some Women Find Doctoral Work More Than Demanding
There is no doubt that graduate school is extremely demanding for everyone. However, it does pose certain challenges that affect women more than men. These challenges can be more complicated for women of color, lesbians, differently abled, or economically disadvantaged women.
Graduate school is a relatively recent option for women, especially those interested in the sciences and engineering. Traditionally, white men pursued doctorates, while most women were held by societal and cultural precedent to a bachelor's degree at best. Today, many women graduate students meet "invisible barriers" within the graduate school system. Many of these barriers are also invisible to men in the environment, and they may unwittingly participate in perpetuating the system. When questioned about whether they're supportive of women in their departments, these men may answer "yes," but unknowingly they may have access to information and contacts their female counterparts do not. The barriers-and the system-are unknown to most women because of their status in the environment. In fact, many women in engineering and science departments around the country report that graduate schools still operate like an "old boys club." Whether by design or default, women may find that they are not privy to the secrets of successfully maneuvering the system, and too often they blame themselves for faults that are part of that invisible system. In some cases, women are welcomed with open arms to academic engineering departments but are still isolated by a system that was put in place well before their arrival. Fortunately, current research on the graduate school experience for women has identified many of these invisible barriers and has presented ways to cope with them-as we hope to do in this guide.
One well-documented barrier is finances. Historically, some women in the sciences and engineering did not receive comparable financial support to men, including grants and postdoctoral positions. In the short term, women may face greater financial and professional strain. Some women have been forced to drop out of Ph.D. programs due to a lack of funding. For many women, financial burdens coupled with an absence of female colleagues and mentors can make the entire experience too difficult and too costly at a personal level. In the long term, inequities can erode the personal strength and self-confidence of female graduate students and can cause them to lose faith in the system. More recently, many colleges and universities have recognized the limited support for women in graduate school and have begun to revise their funding policies.
Women still encounter difficulties because of stereotypes that depict them as intellectually inferior, stressed-out, or wanna-be mommies, but not workers. As a result, faculty and fellow students may unconsciously gauge their views of fellow female classmates in line with limited expectations. Too often women encounter subtle forms of resistance that challenge their personal self-confidence and limit their access to university community resources such as mentoring, collaboration, and informal exchanges vital to academic success.
Although it may seem that women in doctoral programs have already made the choice of career with or without family, the lines are usually not so clear. Some are older and already have families when they begin school-and the majority of the responsibility for housework and child care remains with them. The majority of women still have to cope with greater demands on their personal time than their male colleagues. Female graduate students who also happen to be wives and mothers may encounter subtle forms of discrimination for not being "serious students" and for not being able to completely commit themselves to their graduate work 24 hours a day. They also experience more stress due to expectations at home.
How to Make It
These and other challenges make it that much harder for many women to succeed in graduate programs. As a woman in science or engineering, you've probably already experienced some of these problems during your undergraduate years, although many women don't recognize then until they reach graduate school. You know how the system operates, and, obviously, your enthusiasm for your field has carried you this far. The belief in yourself and your ability to succeed, as well as your passion for learning and study, will help you make it through graduate school. When you enjoy what you do, working hard to succeed is worth it.
Women in graduate school in science and engineering today are less likely to be the pioneers they were a generation ago. Although you still face problems similar to those who came before you, and the situation in most graduate schools is far from perfect, it is improving. The encouraging news is that, as a woman in graduate school today, you will be able to experience and influence changes that your predecessors never imagined.
In this guide we share successful strategies developed by other students for surviving and thriving in their doctoral work. We also have included many suggestions for developing the knowledge and skills to prepare you for your life's work. Graduate school will truly test your commitment, energy, and patience. Probably no other situation in your life to date will be as overwhelming-or rewarding.
AN INTELLECTUAL HIGH
"The Ph.D. is a challenging and tough endeavor for everyone because of the exploration into uncharted places of knowledge. This is also what makes it inviting, exciting and worthwhile, because one is able to discover one's own intellectual strengths as well as the way one's curiosity develops during this time. There is no other instance in which one can feel quite the same 'intellectual high' and sense of accomplishment that one's own Ph.D. work gives, so it is important to understand and learn to navigate the process."
Indira Nair Vice Provost for Education and Associate Professor of Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University (Ph.D., Physics, Northwestern University)
OBLIVIOUS AND CONFIDENT
"My graduate class was small, but about one-third of it was women. The department was very supportive, and it was a fabulous place to be a graduate student. There were some people who didn't think women belonged, but the other women graduate students and I simply avoided them. I must say that I was pretty oblivious to the attitudes of others about my being a woman in science. I guess that was a blessing because I never felt like I didn't belong or shouldn't be pursuing something that I loved. I learned early on that it's a very good ploy to act confident even when you're not because then people perceive you as confident, and that makes a big difference."
Lydia Villa-Komaroff Associate Vice President for Research Administration and Professor of Neorology, Northwestern University (Ph.D., Cell Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
From Journeys of Women in Science and Engineering: No Universal Constants
A RATIONAL OUTLOOK
"I wanted to do engineering because it suited me-it was very rational and I liked its exactness. I have always enjoyed problem solving, and was always intrigued and excited about reaching some sort of conclusion.
"The idea of graduate school came to me when I realized that I was a better student as an undergrad than most of the other students, and that I could probably contribute to society more by getting a Ph.D. I also realized that I had the potential to do much more than calculate the flow rate in multiple pipe systems!
"When I was an undergraduate student in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, about 30-35% of the students in the mechanical engineering program were women. I do not remember any issues of gender differences-we all felt like pretty good friends. When I entered graduate school in the United States, I continued to take a proactive approach focused on my studies. I really did not feel that being a woman was going to be to my disadvantage. That positive attitude was and is crucial to bringing my studies to completion.
"I think the fear of discrimination that is imbedded into women is exaggerated. Although some women do experience true discrimination, some women believe that being a woman is advantageous. My overall experience is somewhere halfway between to two extremes. An engineering doctoral program is demanding in its essence, and I believe that thinking that hard times are inevitable could lead to bad judgment. It is easy to confuse gender discrimination with problems such as professors or fellow students lacking people skills.
"A word of advice: be proactive, stay oriented toward achieving your career goal, and every day take a step forward."
Teodora doctoral student, mechanical engineering
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Woman's Guide to Navigating the Ph.D. in Engineering & Science by Barbara B. Lazarus Lisa M. Ritter Susan A. Ambrose Excerpted by permission.
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