Nevertheless She Persisted? Gender Peer Effects in Doctoral STEM Programs

We study the effects of peer gender composition in STEM doctoral programs on persistence and degree completion. Leveraging unique new data and quasi-random variation in gender composition across cohorts within programs, we show that women entering cohorts with no female peers are 11.7 percentage points less likely to graduate within 6 years than their male counterparts. A 1 standard deviation increase in the percentage of female students differentially increases women's probability of on-time graduation by 4.4 percentage points. These gender peer effects function primarily through changes in the probability of dropping out in a PhD program's first year.

Automated summary

Gender composition of peers in STEM doctoral programs has a significant impact on women's graduation rates, with women in cohorts without female peers showing lower graduation rates. Increasing the proportion of female students can improve women's graduation rates, primarily through reducing the probability of dropping out in the first year.