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Equalizing Opportunities for Women Faculty in Academic Science and Engineering: A Department-level Approach

Sat, August 16, 4:30 to 5:30pm, TBA

Abstract

Recent efforts in the United States to address institutionalized barriers to equal opportunity in paid labor have targeted science and engineering faculty in institutions of higher education. The United States National Science Foundation’s ADVANCE Institutional Transformation program is one such intervention. Our study examines the efforts of one recent recipient of the NSF’s ADVANCE program funding, a research intensive university in the Midwest, to reduce barriers to equal opportunity in the recruitment, retention and promotion of women faculty in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. The research methods of this project were multiple, including action research and traditional social science methods. The research questions were as follows. First, to what extent is the up-take of university initiatives for reducing bias in hiring practices and for reducing gendered barriers to tenure and promotion dependent on changing department-level awareness of “best practices,” and on implementing department-level accountability measures for ensuring compliance with those practices? Second, to what extent did department-level interventions reduce obstacles to advancement for STEM women faculty? Third, to what extent did departmental interventions help to increase the percentage of women STEM faculty on campus? Results show that the number and percentage of women STEM faculty increased from 2005 to 2012, and that increases occurred primarily in the nine project-participating STEM departments. Preliminary analyses also indicate that in the participating STEM departments, efforts to reduce recruitment and evaluation bias, to improve mentoring, and to enhance transparency in tenure/promotion produced more positive departmental climate scores compared with non-participating STEM departments.

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