How do gender imbalances affect women who teach college sciences, technology engineering and math – the STEM disciplines? Why do the imbalances exist? And what can be done to recruit and retain female professors in these fields?
These are some of the issues Union and Skidmore college researchers will delve into during the next three years, thanks to a $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation.
“We’re hoping to learn more about where gender imbalances exist and why,” Johnson said. “Although it is hard to separate the personal from the systemic, our hope is to learn more about the systemic issues and make improvements,” said Brenda Johnson, Union professor of mathematics.
Johnson and Alice Dean, Skidmore professor of mathematics, are co-principal investigators of “Skidmore Union Network (SUN): Supporting Women Faculty in STEM at Liberal Arts Colleges.”
Work begins this fall on both campuses.
The two were the only liberal arts colleges to receive grants from the NSF through this round of its Advance Partnerships for Adaptation, Implementation and Dissemination. awards program. The program seeks to increase representation of women in academic science and engineering careers by encouraging the use of existing innovative materials and practices.
Union and Skidmore scholars will consider how successful programs at some larger, research-oriented universities could be adapted for use and also make recommendations specific to the unique concerns of female faculty at smaller, liberal arts colleges.
Union and Skidmore mirror national trends, which show that women are underrepresented as STEM teachers and scholars, while men continue to dominate the higher faculty ranks.
At both colleges, women constitute slightly more than one-third of tenure-track and tenured faculty in the STEM disciplines. One-third of STEM full professors at Union are women; Skidmore’s percentage of female full professors is 25 percent.
The SUN project will target women faculty in these disciplines at two specific career stages: tenure-track (early career) and tenured associate professors, who have been at the rank for seven years or more. A central goal is to give women resources and support to achieve tenure and promotion.
Other key goals are to learn more about the climates and biases that affect hiring, development and promotion of women in these fields, and to develop environments that will eventually result in a more balanced gender ratio for STEM faculty.
Gender issues, said Dean, “are more of a problem in some areas than others. However, there are certain responsibilities, including child care and family issues, which fall primarily on women.”
The researchers plan to develop a structure that includes such tools as mentoring, collaboration, advanced training and other supports to enable new faculty to succeed in meeting the challenges of juggling family and work responsibilities.
“Building relationships with another college through mentoring will offer opportunities for everyone to gain professionally,” said SUN committee member and Union Dean of Engineering Cherrice Traver.