The aim of the paper is to investigate challenges encountered by female doctoral students on their doctoral journeys. The paper argues that female doctoral students struggle to complete their studies due to a myriad of challenges. Besides the obstacles, those who eventually complete their doctorates cite a variety of enablers on the doctoral journey. Consist with the objectives of the study, the paper explores solutions that can bolster female doctoral education. We observe that doctoral journeys for women are complex, and fluid given the various variables female doctoral students have to navigate and endure. In particular, the academic matrix requires candidates to work independently, produce original work, being able to write academically, use of English language, and contribute to knowledge through publications. The candidates grapple with other intersectional challenges that are linked to funding, burden of children care, absence from home, balancing between academic work and family responsibilities, age, supervision, gendered cultural expectations, gendered norms and values, sexism and patriarchy, academic rigor and unrealistic expectations, time management, heavy teaching loads, death and ill health in families, and stringent visa processes for cross border students. The listed challenges affect female doctoral students differently. Older women pursuing doctoral education struggle with financing their own studies and those of their children. In most of the cases they prioritise their children's education over their own. This links with age and completion time especially for older women who worry about retirement. Apart from the challenges, those who manage to complete the studies are enabled by various factors which such resilience and agency, good supervision and mentorship, support from family members and other sister- sister networks (third space), community of practice and spirituality. Although the role of spirituality is not alluded to in literature, our participants argued that their journeys would not been successful with some divine intervention. This is a unique finding of this study. The paper is based on initial qualitative data collected from 12 doctoral students from the Kenyan case study. The study is undergirded by intersectionality, a theoretical framework that investigates multiple factors that cause a phenomenon. The study has implications for institutions of higher learning, policy makers, key government stakeholders and supervisors. The study has implications for policy and practice, institutions of higher learning and gender practitioners. The study suggests that higher education institutions should incorporate a gender lens in doctoral education in order to address gender specific challenges with respect to female students. This is because women's experiences are unique and particular. Interventions linked to funding opportunities, paid work, streaming university processes and procedures on key information areas, good mentorship and mentorship, tackling sexism and patriarchy in university structures, and considerate workloads and consultation can assist in alleviating some of the challenges doctoral women encounter on their journeys.

Keywords: Doctoral education, female doctoral students, challenges, resilience, agency.