The Socio-Psychological Well-being of Female Doctoral Students in Academia

In the academic field that men have dominated for a longer period, Ph.D. women still face numerous problems in finding their place even though achieving gender equality has been the main aim for several decades in academia (Valian, 2004; Rees, 2001). Even though as many women as men are currently enrolled in postgraduate programs, the academic world is still dominated by men because men hold positions with higher salaries, higher status, and greater power (Monroe et al., 2008).

For example, Monroe et al. (2008) indicated that in the United States, however, the percentage of women enrolling in graduate programs for the past two decades has been above 50%; for the Ph.D.’s awarded, Ph.D. women account for only about 44%,…