just about any woman with the mathematical ability to get into a doctoral program will get the doctorate if her life/family circumstances permit
In addition to the excellent comments that rm makes, I wanted to point out that it's my feeling that the life/family circumstances thing is BIG for women. Certainly, in my own case, one reason I didn't finish the doctorate, despite getting through all the hoops to be considered ABD, was because of my life/family circumstances: I was in an abusive relationship, and the abuser wanted me out of school. The other big reason was that my department did their best to keep POC and women from finishing, either through active persecution or malicious neglect. The double-whammy was enough to force me out with my Master's.
I don't think that much has changed since the 90s, given what I hear from life sciences grad students since then. What I've seen repeatedly is that women's diss projects are more frequently savaged by their advisors/committees. One woman I know had to restart her diss research 3 separate times, while watching men who came into the program with her graduate in 4 or 5 years. Another woman I know had her diss research knocked out from under her by her advisor, and two years later saw worse research on the exact same protein make the cover of Nature -- with a man's picture. One woman in my department had been in the program for more than a decade -- but she was also the laboratory supervisor for one of the full profs in the program, and he wanted to keep her in that position, so she never got her PhD.
I have only rarely seen this sort of persecution happen to a man, and often the man can get out from under it by breaking under the interminable pressure and being extra-assertive at his advisor (one man I know was allowed to have his PhD because he walked into his advisor's office and shouted at him, and kept shouting him down whenever the advisor argued).
There is a major cultural dysfunction in academia that conspires to hide this sort of institutionalized gender (and race) persecution. No one is allowed to talk about it -- you can't talk about it as a student, or you'll never get your degree! And if you talk about it after you get the degree, you won't get a job/tenure/advancement. And if you talk about it after failing to get your degree, it's sour grapes.
no subject
In addition to the excellent comments that
I don't think that much has changed since the 90s, given what I hear from life sciences grad students since then. What I've seen repeatedly is that women's diss projects are more frequently savaged by their advisors/committees. One woman I know had to restart her diss research 3 separate times, while watching men who came into the program with her graduate in 4 or 5 years. Another woman I know had her diss research knocked out from under her by her advisor, and two years later saw worse research on the exact same protein make the cover of Nature -- with a man's picture. One woman in my department had been in the program for more than a decade -- but she was also the laboratory supervisor for one of the full profs in the program, and he wanted to keep her in that position, so she never got her PhD.
I have only rarely seen this sort of persecution happen to a man, and often the man can get out from under it by breaking under the interminable pressure and being extra-assertive at his advisor (one man I know was allowed to have his PhD because he walked into his advisor's office and shouted at him, and kept shouting him down whenever the advisor argued).
There is a major cultural dysfunction in academia that conspires to hide this sort of institutionalized gender (and race) persecution. No one is allowed to talk about it -- you can't talk about it as a student, or you'll never get your degree! And if you talk about it after you get the degree, you won't get a job/tenure/advancement. And if you talk about it after failing to get your degree, it's sour grapes.