[Womeninmedicine] Having female role models correlates with PhD students’ attitudes toward their own academic success

[Weisz, Ora Anna]

RESEARCH ARTICLE
Having female role models correlates with
PhD students’ attitudes toward their own
academic success
Shauna N. GilloolyID
1☯, Heidi Hardt1☯, Amy Erica Smith2☯*
1 Department of Political Science, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, California, United States of America,
2 Department of Political Science, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, United States of America
☯ These authors contributed equally to this work.
* aesmith2 at iastate.edu
Abstract
Research indicates that increasing diversity in doctoral programs can positively affect students’
academic success. However, little research examines students’ responses to female
scholars’ representation. The two studies presented here examine how students’ exposure
to female academic role models shapes students’ attitudes toward their own academic success
(i.e. self-efficacy). Such attitudes are critical because they predict student retention
rates. In our first study, we randomly exposed 297 Ph.D. students in one academic discipline
to either a gender-diverse (i.e. 30% female authors) or non-diverse syllabus in research
methods (i.e. 10% female authors). We examined the effect of the intervention on students’
perceived likelihood of succeeding in the hypothetical course. Contrary to expectations
derived from the literature, we found that increasing women’s representation in syllabi did
not affect female students’ self-efficacy. Rather, male students expressed lower self-efficacy
when evaluating the more gender-diverse syllabus. We also found that students’ attitudes
toward diversity in academia predicted their reactions more strongly than did their
own gender: gender-diverse syllabi reduced self-efficacy among those students unsupportive
of diversity. In our second study, we analyzed non-interventional survey questions to
examine the relationship between female role models and long-term academic self-efficacy.
Analysis was observational and thus did not assess causality. We found that students with
more role models have higher academic self-efficacy, irrespective of student and role model
gender. Nonetheless, results also suggested that some students actively seek female role
models: namely, female students, and particularly those valuing diversity. Our results ultimately
suggest that exposure to female role models relates in surprising ways to Ph.D. students’
self-efficacy. Having more female role models correlates with greater expectations of
academic success among certain groups of students, but with diminished expectations of
academic success among other groups.

_____________________________________________________________________
Ora A. Weisz, PhD | Professor of Medicine, Cell Biology, and Clinical and Translational Science
Vice Chair of Faculty Development, Department of Medicine
Associate Dean for Faculty Development, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Assistant Vice Chancellor for Faculty Excellence, University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences
Renal-Electrolyte Division | 978.1 Scaife Hall | 3550 Terrace St. | Pittsburgh PA 15261
https://www.weiszlab.pitt.edu
Tel: 412-383-8891 | Email: weisz at pitt.edu<mailto:weisz at pitt.edu>

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