Barbara Deveaux Holmes¹, Robin Dalton¹, Dionne Ellis^1,, Amanda Sargent-Lewis¹, Laura Scott¹, Sharon Waters¹

The retention of women in doctoral programs continues to be a challenge for higher education today. The PhD is considered the most prestigious and most international of all degrees. This paper reviews the key findings and messages from a range of publications to corroborate the key research evidence relating to the reason why women are not enrolling into doctoral programs. It then explores possible explanations and justifications for the attainment gap between women and men in doctoral programs. The paper addresses some of the reasons why women are more likely than men to dropout of doctoral programs. There is a huge disparity between men and women, who pursue PhD degrees in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). This paper will address some reasons why women of color are undereducated and underutilized in the area of STEM, and will focus on aspects of social media, status are able to communicate with peers and faculty. Social media can help students build and cultivate relationships that will have an impact on attrition rates on doctoral programs. The cohort model and peer mentoring programs have been instrumental as well in the growth of doctoral programs for the under-represented population of women.

attrition in doctoral studies, women in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields, technology, social media, cohort model