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This article examines the history of Radcliffe College’s Zoological Laboratory, a women’s-only laboratory associated with the all-male Harvard College that became a centre for training women in animal biology. Radcliffe’s laboratory developed in the late nineteenth century in the face of Harvard’s fierce resistance to coeducation and popular scientific ideas that questioned women’s biological fitness for scientific study. This article documents how extralaboratory factors – such as masculine cultures of sociability, informal mentorship relationships and gender segregation in everyday academic life – carried over into the construction of experimental biology as a discipline. I argue that understanding how gender functioned in Radcliffe’s laboratory requires examining adjacent spaces and institutions on and off campus where scientific identities were forged, including neighbourhood boardinghouses and coeducational scientific society meetings. During this period, debates about the right approach to studying the natural world turned on competing visions of manliness in the field or at the laboratory bench. The entrance of Radcliffe women into male-dominated laboratory spaces motivated the articulation of new forms of scientific masculinities associated with the experimental rigours and professional aims of the turn-of-the-century ‘new biology’. More broadly, I contend that notions of scientific masculinity and the concurrent development of fraternal laboratory cultures served to exclude women from full participation in the biological sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of women studying STEM careers and pursuing graduate degrees has not changed in the last decade (National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, 2015; Science & Engineering Degree Attainment: 2004-2014). Most prior research to explain this problem has focused on the topics of identity, access, pedagogy, and choice (Brotman & Moore, 2008; Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 45, 971-1002). Additional research is needed on how internal and external factors interact with one another to demotivate girls and young women from pursuing science careers. Here, we show how girls' competency beliefs are an essential foundation for science content learning during middle school and how these effects of competency beliefs are mediated by in and out-of-school factors. We recruited over 2,900 6th and 8th grade students from two different regions in the United States. At two different time points, students completed surveys asking about their stance toward science such as competency beliefs in science, willingness to engage in argumentation, and choice preferences toward optional science experiences. We also collected a reasoning ability measure, and pre- and post-tests on science content knowledge. Moreover, students also reported on their cognitive behavioral engagement during a sampled science class on two separate occasions. Multiple regression and mediation analyses show that as boys grow older, their willingness to engage in argumentation and to participate in science experiences suppresses the role of competency beliefs on their learning science content. By contrast, as girls grew older, they showed an increasing need to have high competency beliefs to achieve strong content learning gains. Our results demonstrate that despite girls' willingness to participate in scientific argumentation and to take part in science experiences, they probably do not receive enough support in their environment to access the benefits of these experiences, and hence they have a stronger need to have high competency beliefs in order to achieve significant growth in science learning. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 54:790-822, 2017 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our study examines the relationships of six dyads of women advisors and advisees in one doctoral program to understand power, context, and personal transformation. We found that mentoring is context specific and power dynamics range from equitable to hierarchical. This article explores the connection between relational cultural theory and transformative learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes findings of semi-structured interviews with 21 women at different stages of academic careers in North America. I argue that work conditions in contemporary universities subject women graduate students and faculty members to high levels of stress such that work exacts an unsustainable toll on women's bodies, making 'getting through the day' a priority. Themes include work conditions; gendered experiences of stress, health, fertility, and well-being; and efforts to balance work and life. Participants spoke of the disappearance of healthy ways of working and living, isolation, and burnout. Technology combined with increasing workloads to erase boundaries around work. Workday and workplace became ambiguous, work itself ubiquitous and all-encompassing. In addition to discussing the experiences of women scholars and their workplaces, I discuss strategies for improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Research regarding international female engineering graduate students tends to be aggregated with that about the experiences of international students in the United States or as the struggles of female engineers in engineering disciplines. Therefore, this study was conducted to understand the unique experiences of international female students in U.S. engineering graduate programs. Purpose/Hypothesis This study examined the theoretical intersections of sustainability and liminality in the experiences of international female graduate students in U.S. engineering programs. The study explored the tensions and challenges faced by international female engineering students in navigating engineering graduate programs. Design/Method Using qualitative detailed interviews and focus groups conducted with 49 participants, I explored the ways international female engineering students understood the tensions they experienced and developed strategies of persistence in responding to their liminal status within the engineering graduate programs. Results Three themes on the practices of sustainability in navigating liminality emerged from the data: constructing inclusion, challenging invisibility, and reengineering professional efficacy. The themes reflect the everyday strategies of survival the students participate in amid the challenging environment of the academic organizations. Conclusions International female engineers in U.S. graduate engineering programs exist in liminal spaces where their identities are continually being challenged. Through reconstructing inclusion, challenging their invisibility, and reengineering professional efficacy, they transform these liminal spaces to their advantage and persist in their struggles with the challenges they experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this chapter, two women doctoral candidates examine the nature and function of support systems in graduate adult education. Recommendations and strategies for building social capital in the academy are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Knowledge of UK doctors’ career intentions and pathways is essential for understanding future workforce requirements. The aim of this study was to report career choices for and career progression in paediatrics in the UK. Methods Postal questionnaire surveys of qualifiers from all UK medical schools in nine qualification years since 1974. Results In total, 74% (24 621/33 412) and 73% (20 720/28 459) of doctors responded at 1 and 3 years after graduation. Choices for paediatrics 1 year after qualifying fell from 7.8% of 1974 graduates to 5.0% of 1983 graduates, increased to 7.2% of 1993 graduates, and since the level has remained fairly constant. Approximately twice the percentage of women graduates than men graduates indicated a long-term career choice for paediatrics. A total of 44% of those who chose paediatrics 1 year after graduation were working in it 10 years after qualifying. Experience of the subject as a student, and enthusiasm/commitment: what I really want to do, affected long-term career choices more for paediatrics than for other medical careers. Conclusions The proportion of junior doctors wishing to become paediatricians has not changed much during the last 30 years. The planned increase in the number of medical school graduates is necessary to increase the number of UK-trained consultant paediatricians. Medical students who experience enthusiastic and stimulating training in paediatrics may be more likely to become paediatricians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women continue to be underrepresented in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). One factor contributing to this underrepresentation is the graduate school experience. Graduate programs in STEM fields are constructed around assumptions that ignore the reality of women's lives; however, emerging opportunities may lead to experiences that are more compatible for women. One such opportunity is the Graduate Teaching Fellows in K-12 Education (GK-I2) Program, which was introduced by the National Science Foundation in 1999. Although this nontraditional graduate program was not designed explicitly for women, it provided an unprecedented context in which to research how changing some of the basic assumptions upon which a graduate school operates may impact women in science. This exploratory case study examines the self-definition of 8 women graduate students who participated in a GK-12 program at a major research university. The findings from this case study contribute to higher education's understanding of the terrain women graduate students in the STEM areas must navigate as they participate in programs that are thought to be more conducive to their modes of self- definition while they continue to seek to be successful in the historically Eurocentric, masculine STEM fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The value of mentoring relationships among African American women in postbaccalaureate degree programs is emphasized and coupled with a discussion of the current shortage of same-race, same-sex mentors for African American female graduate and professional students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]