“How do we get rid of imposter syndrome?”
The question Abby LoCascio stated resurfaces at every meeting of the Women in Medicine and Science club at the University of Arizona. As president of WIMS — and a female STEM student who shares the same doubts — LoCascio hears confessions of low confidence over and over again.
“It’s not something I think our male counterparts deal with,” LoCascio said. “Their mindset is more like ‘I work hard and I deserve it.’ And that’s it.”
Female undergraduate STEM students often face imposter syndrome that undermines retention.
The UA’s Women in Science and Engineering program seeks to address that problem by expanding mentorship, research experiences and community-based initiatives aimed at supporting female students’ success.
The Women in Science and Engineering program
Founded at the UA in 1979 as part of the Southern Institute for Research on Women, the WISE program was created to address long-standing gender disparities in STEM education. WISE supports women in STEM who face isolation, lower confidence and fewer professional development opportunities.
The program helps strengthen both skills and confidence for these students, according to WISE’s mission statement.
Research done by WISE’s Gender Equity Research Lab shows that women make up 47% of the U.S. workforce and nearly 60% of undergraduate students. But they only account for about one-third of the STEM workforce and are even more underrepresented in the highest-paying STEM jobs.
The lab’s 2021 intersectional analysis of more than 40,000 UA student records showed that women were 70% less likely to enter into the College of Science than males, and those who did were 43% less likely to graduate with a STEM degree. In fact, women who started in STEM were 75% more likely than their male counterparts to graduate with a non-STEM degree.
National Institutes of Health research found that undergraduate students who identified as women earned higher high school GPAs and entered college with stronger math preparation than their male peers, yet reported a lower confidence in their abilities than the male students.
“I feel like every opportunity or big achievement I’ve had has been like dumb luck or I put the hard work in, but somehow my brain doesn’t equate that hard work with good results,” LoCascio said. “It’s almost like a shared trauma that women in STEM have.”
WISE’s mentorship priorities
To help women studying in these fields gain confidence, mentorship is central to WISE’s mission.
Amelia Goodwin, secretary of the UA WIMS club, shared that having access to female mentors made a noticeable difference in her confidence.
“Most of the women in STEM that I’ve talked to give me a lot of hope,” Goodwin said.
Melody Kosters, director of outreach at the Society of Women Engineers UA chapter, expressed having female mentors also helped her navigate imposter syndrome.
“I wasn’t worried about them undermining my struggles and I felt like they would have a similar outlook or experiences,” Kosters said.
“[Female mentors] are the ones who usually suffered with more of the imposter syndrome,” LoCascio said.
She added that male mentors are also supportive, but often struggle to fully comprehend women’s experiences in the field.
“Sometimes, it’s just helpful to know you’re not the only female in the room,” Kosters said.
In the 2023-2024 academic year, WISE matched 55 female mentor-mentee pairs across STEM disciplines as part of its yearly mentorship program.
According to the WISE mentorship program, mentors met with their students for a full academic year and participated in professional development events focused on confidence, skill-building and female networking.
One student quoted in the report said her greatest success from the program was “rediscovering the strength that comes from femme networks.”
Mentees were surveyed immediately before and after the mentorship program.
Before the 2023-2024 mentorship program, only 52% of mentees stated that they felt confident pursuing internships, scholarships and other professional development opportunities in STEM fields. That number increased to 74% after the program.
Research and professional development goals
According to research from the US Department of Labor’s Bureau Labor of Statistics, STEM fields are expected to grow more than twice as fast as other occupations over the next decade. WISE’s Gender Equity Research Lab has focused on helping female students continue access to that growing, high-paying field by developing evidence-based recommendations designed to achieve gender equity.
The lab also provides research opportunities for female undergraduate STEM students, where they gain valuable experience while contributing to research that directly informs efforts to improve women’s pathways through STEM.
Kosters explained that access to research experiences and other professional development opportunities is a key factor to any STEM student’s success.
“The faculty are very openly supportive of women in STEM and women in research,” Kosters said. “But still, for a lot of women, sometimes they have a doubt in their minds that makes them question if they are good enough to pursue those options.”
The UA’s Women in STEM report, spearheaded by WISE, highlighted that increasing transparency around women’s experiences in STEM begins with sharing data on enrollment, persistence and outcomes, specifically in one’s undergraduate career.
“Achieving intersectional equity in STEM fields is a crucial factor to achieving not only greater social equality, but also greater technological and scientific innovation to meet the challenges we face in the 21st century,” the lab’s mission states.
The K-16+ pipeline
WISE also strengthens its K-16+ pipeline, which supports female students at all levels of education through internships that send undergraduate students into local schools. It gives the interns leadership and career development opportunities and exposes local youth to female role models in STEM.
In 2023-2024, 45 interns worked across three outreach programs — the Bio/Diversity Project, Imagine Your STEM Future and Girls Who Code. All three rely on female UA students to support younger girls’ interests in STEM.
According to the program’s annual report, 97% of the Bio/Diversity interns stated the experience helped them achieve their academic and professional goals. After the internship, 93% of the interns replied that they felt confident applying for other jobs or internships and 83% stated they felt more confident in their academic abilities.
Remaining barriers
While WISE’s progress and programming show promising support for female STEM students, several limitations remain in reaching all students effectively.
Some students shared that awareness of research and development opportunities could be improved.
“Obviously these resources exist, but it can be really hard to dig them up,” Goodwin said. “I think the university could advertise to greater audiences, especially for the freshmen.”
Kosters added that she had to actively search for any opportunities in order to further her undergraduate career.
“I’ve only really ever learned about research opportunities or other development opportunities because I’ve had to put myself in those like workshops or put myself in clubs where they talk about it,” Kosters said.
She also pointed to time restraints with her rigorous schedule.
“Many STEM students have such a heavy course load that they can’t begin to think about finding mentors or additional programs to join,” Kosters said.
And while WISE may have a large impact on female STEM student’s undergraduate careers, it can’t control future barriers that women in STEM may face in the workforce.
Still, WISE gives women skills to work past those barriers. Addressing challenges like imposter syndrome early and supporting retention and accessibility before these students enter the workforce can make a real impact on their career trajectories.
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