Understanding Women’s Experience in Graduate Mathematics Through a Focused Identity Lens

Abstract

Despite relatively equal proportions of boys and girls enrolled in STEM courses during grade school, women are significantly underrepresented in STEM degrees and occupations around the world (Hill, Corbett, and St. Rose, 2010). The field of mathematics reflects this trend. Our focus in this article is on three women graduate students in mathematics at a University in the Southeastern United States. In particular, we were interested in their identities that include their perspective on the graduate program. Specifically, we sought to understand the norms, expectations, and resources of the social situation in which their identities were developing. As will become apparent, the three students illustrate different identities as they participated in graduate school mathematics.