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Feeling undervalued is repeatedly associated with women leaving STEM work, but the best recent academic evidence points to a broader problem: institutional climate, department culture and belonging can matter more than salary or job title when faculty decide whether to stay. A 2025 peer-reviewed study in FEBS Letters examined faculty who moved to another institution, not women who left academia altogether. Its 59 responses therefore illuminate retention and turnover pressures without proving that feeling undervalued is a single cause of academic exit.
What the academic survey actually measured
Doles and colleagues surveyed STEM faculty during November and December 2023. Every respondent had recently changed institutions while remaining in an academic faculty role; approximately 60% of the 59 completed responses came from women. Participants ranked factors that influenced their relocation decisions.
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The leading factor overall was the institutional environment and available resources. Department culture came next, followed by perceptions of inclusion and belonging. Salary or compensation ranked sixth, and job title seventh—the two lowest-ranked items in the survey.
| Factor | Overall position in relocation decisions |
|---|---|
| Institutional environment and resources | 1st |
| Department culture | 2nd |
| Inclusion and belonging | 3rd |
| Salary or compensation | 6th |
| Job title | 7th |
The pattern suggests that a higher salary cannot automatically offset a workplace where faculty lack support, voice or a sense that their contributions count.
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Why the result is especially relevant to women faculty
Women placed department culture second and inclusion and belonging third, giving those factors greater weight than the overall response pattern indicates for some other groups. Respondents described as disadvantaged ranked inclusion and belonging first. The authors noted that demographic groups differ in the relative importance of relocation factors, rather than responding to a single universal incentive.
The study’s conclusion is correspondingly broad: higher-education culture and climate are important drivers of intent to leave and actual turnover, particularly for women faculty, faculty of color and disadvantaged faculty. In this context, “feeling undervalued” is best understood as an experience produced by everyday recognition, workload, promotion and decision-making practices—not as a standalone variable that the survey established as the top-ranked item.
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Evidence beyond academia links undervaluation to STEM departures
A separate national STEM workforce survey summarized by the Survey Center on American Life found that people who had left STEM most often cited changed career interests or family responsibilities. About four in ten also cited feeling undervalued, inadequate salary or benefits, and limited advancement opportunities. Women were more likely than men to leave STEM.
The same report found that 40% of STEM degree-holders believed women face more obstacles in STEM than in other industries. Among female respondents, that figure rose above 50%. These results cover the wider STEM workforce, including people outside universities, so they support the academic findings as context rather than serving as a direct measure of faculty attrition.
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How pay, recognition and life pressures interact
Institutional climate and belonging
Exclusion, poor communication or a department in which contributions are routinely overlooked can make a position unsustainable even when its salary is competitive. Belonging also affects access to informal information, collaborators and advocates.
Recognition and advancement
Feeling undervalued often becomes concrete through promotion criteria, credit for teaching and service, authorship, mentoring access or unclear paths to leadership. The national STEM evidence connects limited advancement with departure, alongside compensation and benefits.
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Compensation and resources
Pay still matters, especially when workloads, research costs or family expenses are high. The FEBS Letters ranking does not show that compensation is unimportant; it shows that respondents to this relocation survey ranked environment and culture above it.
Family and quality of life
Changed career interests and family responsibilities were the most common reasons reported by people who had left STEM in the national survey. Location, flexibility, caregiving support and workload can determine whether an otherwise attractive academic job is workable.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What universities can do to retain women faculty
The findings point to retention measures that address systems, not just individual resilience. The FEBS Letters authors recommend:
- Broader promotion and tenure definitions that recognize varied scholarly and educational contributions.
- Support for faculty specialization instead of one narrow model of academic success.
- Peer collaboration, mentoring and professional coaching.
- Structured professional development and leadership opportunities.
- Training for leaders in communication, fairness and inclusive decision-making.
These steps make recognition visible and advancement more predictable. They also give departments ways to identify problems before a faculty member begins searching elsewhere.
How the wider workforce data compares
For cross-national context, an OECD analysis of the AARP Global Employee Survey asked roughly 1,000 workers per country in 12 countries in June and July 2022. Among tertiary-educated workers who had switched jobs, 29% cited feeling undervalued, 27% low pay and 26% lack of advancement. Because this was a general workforce sample rather than an academic study, the figures should not be treated as estimates of women faculty turnover. They do, however, show that recognition, pay and progression commonly travel together in decisions to change jobs.
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- The closest direct academic evidence is a 59-person survey of STEM faculty who changed institutions while staying in academia.
- Institutional environment and resources, department culture, and inclusion and belonging outranked salary and title in that survey.
- Women gave department culture and inclusion greater priority than the overall sample, while disadvantaged respondents ranked inclusion first.
- Independent STEM workforce evidence associates undervaluation, weak compensation or benefits and limited advancement with leaving, and finds higher departure rates among women.
- No cited study proves that feeling undervalued alone causes women to leave academia altogether.
The Bottom Line
Women’s decisions to leave or relocate are tied to whether their institutions provide respect, belonging, fair advancement and workable support—not simply to the number on a pay offer. Treating undervaluation as a culture and management problem gives universities more effective retention options than relying on salary adjustments alone.
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