The Value of Role Models in Retaining Undergraduate Women in the Geosciences

Women continue to be marginalized in the geosciences and despite recent gains at the undergraduate level, represent only 16% of the geoscience workforce. The PROmoting Geoscience Research, Education, and SuccesS (PROGRESS) is a highly successful role modeling and mentoring program aimed at supporting first- and second-year college women interested in the geosciences (geosciencewomen.org). This long-term evidence-based program allows us to compare female STEM majors in PROGRESS to a matched control group using a longitudinal prospective multi-site quasi-experimental design. Specifically, PROGRESS members identify more female STEM career role models than their peers (60% vs. 42%, respectively), suggesting that deliberate interventions like this help develop the networks of undergraduate women. Further, this increased support increased students' persistence in geoscience-related majors: PROGRESS participants have higher rates of persistence (95% vs. 73%) and this desire to stay in the field relates to the number of female STEM role models they identify. In fact, the persistence of undergraduate women nearly doubles for each additional role model she identifies, with 77% of students with three or more role models staying in the field. Students with larger networks and more identified role models report a greater sense of scientific identity, likely contributing to their increased persistence. We will discuss these results as well as our recent workshops examining scalability to provide a brief overview of how to implement the mature aspects of PROGRESS in new settings.