Understanding the challenges experienced by women and racially marginalized students in physics graduate programs

High attrition and lack gender and racial diversity are two major issues faced in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) graduate education. Students with historically marginalized identities in STEM fields have higher attrition rates than students with dominant identities. Many systematic efforts have been initiated to help increase social representation in STEM fields. For example, the American Physical Society (APS) created the Bridge Program by placing racially marginalized students into selected physics graduate programs. In my study, I approach student attrition through the lens of the departmental environment. In particular, my goal is to understand how students' experiences in their programs (e.g., mentoring, social and academic support) influence persistence. In this talk, I will present interview data results of 6 women and Bridge students across four institutions who describe key aspects of their graduate program that were influential for their success. I find that social and academic support are the most important aspects that influence student academic progress and, in turn, their persistence. In particular, Bridge men students report experiencing a strong social and academic support system that is intentionally built into their program. However, non-Bridge women report a lack of social and academic support exacerbated by actionable instances of sexism. I conclude my talk by discussing implications for research and practice.