Gardner quoted in Science article on challenges for female Ph.D. students
Susan Gardner, director of the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program and Rising Tide Center at the University of Maine, was quoted in the Science article, “When you’re the only woman: The challenges for female Ph.D. students in male-dominated cohorts.” Gardner has interviewed Ph.D. students about their experiences in graduate school, the article states. Students usually drop out because of some other factor besides intellectual ability, such as poor advising, a toxic climate, or because they want to pursue other options, according to Gardner. “Very few people drop out of doctoral education because they got bad grades,” she said. Regardless of the reason, Gardner added, the study makes it clear that “there’s something systemic going on. And systemic problems have to be dealt with at the institutional level.” Faculty members should do more to think about how to make “our students feel like they belong,” she said.