The Doctoral Challenge: Select Women Students’ Experiences in a Higher Educational Leadership Doctoral Program

Abstract

There is scant research on the topic of challenges and coping mechanisms necessary to the
success of women doctoral students. Thus, the purpose of this study was to assess
qualitatively the experiences of 3 women doctoral students enrolled at a 4-year university in
southeast Texas in an attempt to explore the challenges that evolve while they are enrolled in
a doctoral program. Specifically, we examined the lives of these women doctoral students
outside of the program and their progression to the completion of their degrees. We attempted
to provide insight surrounding the doctoral process, attrition, and completion. A collective
case study research design was utilized in this study that was driven by a critical dialectical
pluralistic philosophical stance (Onwuegbuzie & Frels, 2013). Specifically, these 3 students
were interviewed individually to examine their lived experiences as doctoral students. The
verbal interview responses then were subjected to an ethnographic analysis (i.e., domain
analysis, taxonomic analysis, componential analysis; Spradley, 1979), whereas their
nonverbal responses were subjected to a classical content analysis. The ethnographic analysis
of the verbal data revealed the following 2 themes: program perceptions and role inequity.
The classical content analysis of the nonverbal data revealed 2 major categories that
represented both explicit and inferred forms of communication: types of challenges and
survival strategies. Implications of the findings are discussed.