Advancing Women in Science and Engineering

Boston University April 6, 2007

Two Main Goals

• Describe “institutional transformation” effort at UM

• Discuss key elements of institutional transformation that can be adapted and adopted at other institutions

Why should we focus on advancing women in science and engineering?• Underrepresentation on the faculty in science and

engineering

• “The higher, the fewer”

Percentage of Female Graduates and Faculty in LSA Natural Science Departments, AY2001

247

34

24

9 11

80%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

BachelorsDegrees

MastersDegrees

DoctoralDegrees

AssistantProfessors

AssociateProfessors

FullProfessors

Percentage of Female Graduates and Faculty in Engineering Departments, AY2001

309118 36

1112

80%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

BachelorsDegrees

MastersDegrees

DoctoralDegrees

AssistantProfessors

AssociateProfessors

Full Professors

NSF ADVANCE Program Goals• To improve the institutional climate for tenured and

tenure-track women faculty in science and engineering

• To improve recruitment, retention, and promotion of tenured and tenure-track women faculty in science and engineering

• To increase visibility and authority of women engineering and science faculty in leadership positions

Core Aspect of Any Change Effort• Believing change is necessary here• At UM, this entailed

o Examination of pattern of representation in different disciplines

Low representation High turnover

o Assessment of the “climate” for women and minorities Less satisfied overall Felt disrespected, overworked, and undervalued Not mentored as well as men

o Assessment of key professional markers: recruitment, promotion, salary

UM Approach to ADVANCE

Once persuaded that situation was not equitable…

• Goal: institutional change• At all levels of institution

o Individualo Departmento Collegeo University

• Strategy: change institutional policies and practices (not “fix the women”)

Institutional Change in Four Key Domains• Recruitment• Nature of faculty interactions (“climate”)• Institutional policy and practice review• Development of Network of Women Scientists and

Engineers

Recruitment — Influencing a Departmental Practice at UM• Creation of STRIDE (committee on Strategies and

Tactics for Recruiting to Improve Diversity and Excellence)o Eight (now ten) science and engineering senior faculty o Studied the social science literature

• Encourage colleagues to adopt better, equitable recruiting strategies

STRIDE

Seated (left to right): Melvin Hochster, Mathematics; John Vandermeer, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology; Martha E. Pollack, Computer Science and Engineering; and Samuel Mukasa, Geological Sciences.

Standing (left to right): Gary Huffnagle, Internal Medicine, Microbiology & Immunology; Charles Brown, Economics; Abigail Stewart, Psychology, Women’s Studies; Katherine Spindler, Microbiology and Immunology; Carol Fierke, Chemistry; Mark Chesler, Sociology (consultant to STRIDE); Pamela Raymond, Senior Counselor to the Provost, MCDB; and Wayne Jones, Materials Science and Engineering.

Recruitment: Analysis of the ProblemSTRIDE offers:

• Conceptual tools o Gender schemaso Evaluation biaso Critical masso Accumulation of disadvantage

• Empirical evidenceo Evaluations of CVso Evaluation of fellowship and grant

proposalso Impact on salary of different background

factorso Influence of small biases on institutional

outcomeso Leadership and the head of the table

• Explanatory model

Lowered career success rate

Gender Gender schemasschemas

Lack of Lack of critical masscritical mass

Accumulation of disadvantageAccumulation of disadvantage

EvaluationEvaluation biasbias

Performance is underestimatedPerformance is underestimated

Does STRIDE work?

College Men Women Men Women

Medical School (Basic Sciences)

2 2 21 11

College of Engineering

33 3 49 23

College of LSA (Natural Sciences)

28 5 40 23

Total % Women 14% 34%

AY2001-2002 AY2003-2006

This table shows the proportion of men and women hired in each of the three colleges that employ the largest number of scientists and engineers at the University of Michigan.

Note the marked, and statistically significant, increase in the proportion of women hired, comparing the two “pre-STRIDE” years with the four “post-STRIDE” years (chi square=10.54, p=.01).

Why does STRIDE work?• Credible source

o Scientists and engineerso Based on research findings

• Explanatory modelo Organizes information (for recall)o Releases from guilt

• Concrete actions

Changing the Climate for Faculty Interactions: CRLT Players • Performed sketches on

multicultural classroom dynamics

• Created sketches for us on:

o Faculty meeting

o Faculty advising faculty

o Tenure committee meeting “Faculty Meeting” sketch

Social Science Research Findings Represented in Sketches• Perceptions of “tokens”• Role of leadership

o Power of framing of issues

• Gender dynamics/rank dynamicso Interruptionso Listeningo Who has power and influence

• Implications of dynamics for outcomes• Who can change the dynamics and how

Reviewing Institutional Policies — “Consciousness-Raising” in an Institution

• Committee on Gender in Science and Engineering convened by President and Provost

• Sub-committees chaired by 3 deans made recommendations on:o Faculty Tracks and Work/Family Integrationo Recruitment, Retention, and Leadershipo Evaluation and Promotion of Faculty

• View policies from perspective of women scientists and engineers

President Mary Sue Coleman (above) and

Provost Teresa Sullivan (below), Co-chairs of

the GSE Committee

GSE Sub-Committee Composition• 21 senior faculty in

science and engineering:o 12 men, 9 womeno 6 colleges (LSA,

Medicine, Engineering, Public Health, Pharmacy, and Dentistry)

o 13 departments within the 4 largest colleges

Left to right:

Terrence J. McDonald, Dean, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts;

Stephen Director, former Dean, College of Engineering; and

Allen Lichter, former Dean, Medical School

Significant Policy Changes• Changes in recruitment practices (e.g., required

STRIDE training, shortlist review)• Changes in annual salary review practices (adopt

standardized template)• Formalization of expectations about career advising• More flexible tenure clock, with explicit framing of

“compensation for time lost” vs. “extra time”• Family-friendly policies

o Generous family leave (for the US) for both men and women

o Dual career program with budget

Influence of Social Science Research and Feminist and Organizational Theory• Importance of institutional policies as

articulations of norms

• Focus on mitigating:o Evaluation bias in recruitment and evaluationo Stigma in use of individual-focused policieso Location of parenting in female facultyo Rigidity of career track grounded in men’s lives

Creation of Network of Women Scientists and Engineers• Support positive collective identity

o Exposure to new experiences of each other as helpful and interesting

• Encourage alliances between women and men • Create support structures that will last (peer

mentoring)

Network Dinner, Spring 2006

Use Network to Define Goals

Use Network to surface issueso Initial meeting to create agenda

o Annual meeting to voice issues to decision-makers

o Regular survey feedback on activities wanted and valued

o ADVANCE staff visibly available for advice/support/trouble-shooting

Faculty with the UM Provost at the Network Dinner, Fall 2006

UM Approach to ADVANCE• Goal: institutional change• At all levels of institution

o Individualo Departmento Collegeo University

• Strategy: change institutional policies and practices (not “fix the women”)

Emphasized Changes in Structures and Practices• Recruitment practices and STRIDE committee• CRLT Players and “climate”• Policy changes and GSE committee

o Changes in practices of review committeeso Salary and space monitored

• Network

• Individual changes crucial to institutional transformation

STRIDE Committee’s Experience as Prototype for Individual Change

“I was surprised by the number of studies…on the nature of the bias, and where the bias comes from…there’s been a lot of really, really good research that’s been done, you know, these studies are fantastic.”

“The process that we went through worked so well…the process being to identify a group of senior faculty, both men and women, in the sciences and engineering, who have shown some evidence of being concerned about these issues, but who clearly don’t know all the literature. And I think every one of us…is like that…. We all had some previous commitment, but what we realized when we got together and started actually looking at the data and learning together was that we didn’t understand, we didn’t really know what was going on, we really were quite naïve…that discovery process, I think, was so critical to building the passion that the current group has.”

Experience for Women STRIDE Participants “I would say the most surprising thing that I’ve learned was what unconscious bias was, and how prevalent it is, and how it works…I discovered …that in my own career I had been coping by denying that I had ever had any problems…it turned out to be much more of an emotional voyage than I had ever expected it to be.”

Have we made real progress? Institutional Changes

o Lively network of women scientists and engineers on campus

o Significantly increased faculty recruitment (women increased from 13% to 17% of science and engineering faculty)

o Went from having no woman chair of a major science or engineering department to having 6 (of 25)

o Formal policies and practices changedo Individual changeso Climate assessed in 2005 survey of women faculty: less

sexist and more positive

Generalizing from UM

• Particular institution • Top leadership was committed• Infusion of resources and imprimatur of NSF

What are lessons for others?

Single Most Important Low Cost Action

• Create and activate network of women scientists and engineerso Provide forum for meetingso Create linkages between scientists and

engineers and faculty in other disciplines with relevant knowledge (women’s studies, organizational behavior, social sciences)

o Create vehicle for two-way communication between the women and institutional leaders

o Encourage collaboration with male allies

Formal Expression of Principles Matters

• Articulating general principles of commitment (as with “MIT-9”)o Requires sustained reflectiono Creates consensuso Improves morale for group currently

disenfranchised

We hold as fundamental that:

• Women and men are equally capable of doing excellent science. • Diversity contributes to, rather than conflicts with, excellence in science. • Current recruitment, training, evaluation and award systems often prevent

the equal participation of women. • Formal and informal mechanisms that are effectively discriminatory are

unlikely to change by themselves. Both thought and action are necessary to ensure equal participation for all.

• Increasing the number of women in astronomy will improve the professional environment and improving the environment will increase the number of women.

Formal Principles: The Baltimore Charter for Women in Astronomy (1992): Preamble

This Charter addresses the need to develop a scientific culture within which both women and men can work effectively and within which all can have satisfying and rewarding careers. Our focus is on women but actions taken to improve the situation of women in astronomy should be applied aggressively to those minorities even more disenfranchised.

Improving the situation of women in astronomy will benefit, and is the responsibility of, astronomers at all levels. Department heads, observatory directors, policy committee chairs, and funding agency officials have a particular responsibility to facilitate the full participation of women: to nurture new talent, to ensure the effectiveness of teaching, and to examine and correct patterns of inequity. The profession should be responsible for regular review and assessment of the status of women in astronomy, in pursuit of equality and fairness for all.

Baltimore Charter Call to Action

Review of Policies and Practices• Policy review must include real possibility

for policy changeo Include women scientists and engineerso Broadly representativeo Led by those responsible for implementation

• Examine the core practices of the institutiono Recruitmento Evaluationo Professional interaction (“climate”)o Gather and evaluate data

Examine and Change Policies and Practices

• Consider policies and practices that currently exist and are problems

…as well as…

• Missing policies and practiceso Routine reviews of equity in promotion, salary,

etc.

End Counterproductive Practices at Many Levels

• Meetings too early or too late• Appointing women and underrepresented

minorities (URM) to too many committees• Never asking women or URM to chair

committees or departments• Tolerating uncivil behavior, which always

affects less powerful most

Remember the Different Constituencies Involved in Culture Change

• Top administrative leadership• Department chairs• Tenure review committees• Salary/annual review committees• Hiring/recruitment committees• Faculty who are “too important” to serve

on committees• New faculty from other institutions• Young faculty

Increase Leadership Capacity in this Area

• Provide new leadership training o Current chairs and other line administratorso Women scientists and engineerso New full professors

Create Forms of Recognition that Advance the Goals

• Reward individuals for:o Thoughtful mentoringo Service that advances this agenda

• Reward departments that take active steps to create positive climate

• Reward chairs and other administrators for successful efforts in this domain

Take Ideas from Many Sources• Three rounds of ADVANCE

institutions funded for “institutional transformation”o Web sites with many resourceso Chair trainingo Leadership programso Sample recruitment handbookso More…

• Particular institutions noted for innovative changes (MIT)

• Books: Virgina Valian’s Why so slow

Transforming Science and Engineering: Advancing Academic Women

• Abigail Stewart, Janet Malley, and Danielle LaVaque-Manty, co-editors

• University of Michigan Press, 2007• Nineteen chapters in four sections:

o Contexto Providing institutional support to individual womeno Transforming institutional practiceso Learning from change

New ideas will be generated here!

New deadline for NSF ADVANCE PAID (Partnerships for Adaptation, Innovation, and

Dissemination) program to be announced soon