Three years later: gender differences in the advisor's impact on career choices in astronomy and astrophysics

TL;DR

This longitudinal study examines how mentoring, gender, and personal challenges influence career retention in astronomy, highlighting factors that can be addressed to improve diversity and retention of women in the field.

Contribution

It provides updated insights into the effects of mentorship, gender, and personal issues on career retention among astronomy PhDs, based on longitudinal survey data.

Findings

Mentorship did not significantly influence continued work in astronomy.

Imposter syndrome and respondent gender indirectly affected career choices.

Advisor encouragement, two-body problem, and postdoc completion directly impacted retention.

Abstract

The Longitudinal Study of Astronomy Graduate Students (LSAGS) arose from the 2003 Women in Astronomy Conference, where it was noted that a majority of young members of the American Astronomical Society were women. The astronomy community wishes to make every effort to retain young women in astronomy, so they commissioned a longitudinal study to be conducted that would pinpoint the factors that contribute to retention in general, with a focus on differences between women and men. The LSAGS follows a cohort of people who were graduate students in astronomy or astrophysics during 2006-07. The first survey was conducted during 2007-08, the second during 2012-13, and the third during 2015. The analysis presented in this paper, which is an update to our previous paper on this topic, used a subset of the respondents, all of whom had PhDs in astronomy, astrophysics, or a related field at the time of the third survey. We tested the effects of four major concepts on attrition from physics and astronomy. These concepts included: the imposter syndrome, mentoring and advising during graduate school, the so-called "two-body problem" that occurs when a couple needs to find two jobs in the same geographic area, and gender of the respondent. Having a mentor in grad school did not contribute to working outside of physics or astronomy. Showing characteristics of the imposter syndrome and gender of the respondent had indirect effects on working outside the field. Encouragement of the graduate advisor, the two-body problem, and completing a postdoc, had significant direct effects on working in physics or astronomy. This research identifies specific areas of concern that can be addressed by the scientific community to increase the retention of all people, but especially women, in astronomy and astrophysics.