Supporting factors for starting a PhD, by gender

Notes on section 5.5 of the paper "Why do women pursue a PhD in Computer Science?"

Extended table 11

The distribution of responses to questions related to participants’ perceptions of encouraging factors for pursuing a PhD with statistically significant differences between those who chose to do a PhD and those who didn’t, segregated by gender.

Two recurring themes in our findings are a consistently slightly lower enthusiasm for computer science and a slightly lower self-confidence in their computer science abilities expressed by females who choose not to start a PhD compared to males. These differences disappear when considering participants who decided to start a PhD, suggesting love for and self-confidence in doing computer science are less prevalent in females than in males who decide not to start a PhD. This lack of self-confidence when considering programming skills is stronger, even for females who decide to start a PhD. On the other hand, females who decide to start a PhD expressed a higher preference for interdisciplinary areas of computer science and valued family encouragement for starting a PhD more than males. Regardless of their decision about starting a PhD, females have a stronger belief than males that a better gender balance would increase their likelihood of starting a PhD in computer science.