In our analysis of participants’ perspectives on the challenges women face in conducting research, three major themes surfaced:
1) differing expectations for female students versus male students in conducting research,
2) challenges for female students in securing research opportunities, and
3) practical challenges for female students in conducting research.
Theme 1: Differing expectations for female students versus male students in conducting research
Some participants reported that faculty seemed to indicate differing expectations for female students versus male students. These differing expectations surfaced in various ways throughout the research process, from gauging interests to assuming abilities to judging outcomes.
Some participants reported different expectations regarding female students’ abilities. In discussing her interactions with faculty, one participant remarked, “Like, even if you think that I cannot do this, I will proceed to do that specific thing…just to try to prove otherwise, [that] we can do whatever males can do.” Other participants commented on the need to outperform male colleagues to demonstrate their abilities: “Personally, always I think I should do better than a male does. Because we [are] always in a circle when we need to prove that…we deserve this opportunity, w’allah we deserve this thing that we had.” One participant linked women’s need to prove themselves to a broader historical context. She noted that women are “relatively newer to the workforce…compared to our ancestors who were mostly housewives at home,” and described the effects of this historical shift: “You need to prove yourself if you're here, if you're going to be paid as much as [a man].”
Other participants described the surprise that some faculty members expressed at the results that the female students were able to achieve. Some participants interpreted over-praise as a signal that the female students were not expected to perform as well as their male counterparts:
Participant
Sometimes I feel like they look at you like they don't expect a lot and then when you do something they’re impressed more than if it was a male.
Interviewer
Can you give a specific example?
Participant
So for example, let's say…the poster day. I feel like sometimes when they see that it's [a] group of females…they would be more impressed only because we are females. So, they understand that females can do a lot and they understand that yes, we're going to do it. But when they actually see us doing something great, they would be more impressed.
Similarly, another participant interpreted faculty members’ over-praise as indicating low expectations. She commented: “I think at the beginning we think that [praise] is something nice…when we think about it more…it’s only because they don't expect that much…when they praise you, they're not trying to belittle you, but they're actually genuinely impressed because in their minds they did not think, for example, that yes, you can do it…maybe you're praising me only because I'm a female and you did not expect me to do this.”
The point where the participant noted that praise started to feel like low expectations was when she compared it to praise that a male student might receive for the same work: “I did not start to feel happy when someone would praise me for these little things that I don't think other male [students] would get as much praise from it.”
One female student voiced dissent after listening to some of the above comments. She said, “I personally have a different opinion…I know a professor who worked with both male and female students from the university, and they were impressed from both the male and the females…and I think I don’t know if we really have enough evidence to jump into this conclusion…[that] they’re belittling me because I’m a female and they don’t expect this from me.” While she acknowledged the possibility of the situation her colleagues described, she expressed hesitation about jumping to the conclusion that low expectations for a student were tied to gender.
Some participants who perceived lower expectations said they were determined to prove those expectations wrong. As one participant noted, “I understand why they are praising me in that way…and honestly personally I get more competitive…Like it really pushes me forward.” On the other hand, as we will see in the next section, other participants responded with hesitation and fear of rejection.
Theme 2: Challenges for female students in securing research opportunities
Our participants expressed specific challenges in securing research opportunities and approaching faculty to create meaningful research. Some participants reported difficulty in finding equal opportunities to conduct research in situations where professors seemed to take male students more seriously. For example, one interviewee expressed that faculty turned her down while giving similar opportunities to a male student within the same time frame. “But I feel like, indirectly…they would say, oh, we don't have any projects going on, but then we see that male students are joining them.”
As one participant stated, “Sometimes in research you get a lot more doors shut in your face than doors open.” There was a consistent emphasis on frequency of rejection which happened to many students regardless of gender. However, one female student reported multiple rejections when trying to propose a research idea, when the same doctor would accept male students:
My friend’s experience in the hospital…they were complaining that they're not able to find research…I told them like there's so many doctors in the hospital, just go to them. And they said…we always try, and we just get rejected, but at the same time there are guys who are working with the professor with the same doctors. So it's kind of weird [that] they don't take them seriously.
Moreover, women also found it difficult to approach male faculty. One participant noted that “your mentor, he might not be open to the idea of training females.” However, other participants reported that they felt students were given equal opportunities. These students noted that doctors placed greater emphasis on the willingness of the student to work. As one participant observed, “I think I largely agree…in the sense that they don't really differentiate between…male students and female students.”
Some of the difficulty arose from faculty members’ assumptions about female students’ research interests. For example, one participant “approached a….surgeon, and I asked him if he had any projects he was…doing that I could take part in,” because, as she told him, “I do want, you know, some experience in surgery research.” The student reported that the surgeon “was surprised” by her request and responded, “most girls usually are not interested in surgery.” The student reported that this exchange motivated her to “pave the way kind of for more girls” and said that it was “all the more reason to put myself in surgical research.”
Another recurring theme was the concept of “shyness,” a term that participants mentioned both directly and indirectly in different interviews. Participants discussed feeling shy due to their own sensitivity, afraid of bothering busy faculty, concerned about gender barriers, and undeserving of opportunities. Some participants reflected on a social barrier that impacted cross-gender communication:
Interviewer
I want to come back to the word you used, which is “shy”...why do…female students feel more shy?
Participant
Because [they] had less experience communicating with other gender…sometimes you're worried you would cross the line…you want to show the other person that you're being respectful and that everything is formal…so sometimes it would cause you to be more shy.
These motifs explore the challenges students face in all phases of approaching a doctor or professor for a research opportunity, from shyness to rejection to fear of being compared to others. Overall, these challenges and unconscious biases create barriers for female students to fully engage in and access research opportunities.
Theme 3: practical challenges for female students in conducting research
The final set of obstacles our participants discussed was the practical challenges of navigating gendered spaces. Participants noted that these practical challenges could, in various ways, limit their ability to engage fully in necessary research activities.
One example of a persistent (though improving) practical challenge was driving. June 2018 was when driver’s licenses first began to be issued to women in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Many women in this context are either new to driving or still do not drive. Some participants noted that researchers may favor accepting male students, who are more likely to drive. As one participant noted:
Sometimes, certain research or certain studies require you to go back and forth between hospitals a lot, or…you're collecting samples of like, serum or blood or something in one place, and you have to transport it to another place. This transport is something that when researchers are looking for participants for a study, they look for males generally, to do this transport.
The reality that more male students than female students can drive is perceived to have an effect on certain research opportunities. Although more women are getting driver’s licenses, this gap will likely remain a significant practical challenge to conducting research for some years to come.
Another set of practical challenges pertains to the gendered division of space. Several participants mentioned the importance of using the local printer’s shop to order materials necessary for showcasing their research in conferences and competitions. However, the printer’s shop was a male-dominated space in which the female students described feeling uncomfortable and even fearful. One participant said “I went to the printer place to print the poster. It was the worst experience; I will never do it again.” The reason for this reaction was that “The place itself, it was a very small room which was full of males.” She said that “you would not feel safe going inside.” Another participant noted that her female colleagues “did not go inside there.” They gestured to the proprietor that they needed assistance and did their ordering from outside the print shop.
All of the factors we described in this section can present challenges to female students who are keen to engage in research. Female students responded in a variety of ways to these perceived challenges, and the discussion section will explore in more depth both the nature of the obstacles women face and what our findings suggest about how these challenges can be overcome.