Deficits theory posits that women scientists have not yet achieved parity with men scientists because of structural aspects of the scientific environment that provide them with fewer opportunities and more obstacles than men. The current study of 208 faculty women scientists tested this theory by examining the effect of personal negative experiences and perceptions of the workplace climate on job satisfaction, felt influence, and productivity. Hierarchical multiple regression results indicated that women scientists experiencing more sexual harassment and gender discrimination reported poorer job outcomes. Additionally, perceptions of a generally positive, nonsexist climate, as well as effective leadership, were related to positive job outcomes after controlling for harassment and discrimination. We discuss implications for the retention and career success of women in academic science.

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The current study examined whether women scientists' perceptions of voice moderate the impact of poor workplace climates on job satisfaction and whether effective leadership and mentoring promote women's voice. Survey data were collected from 135 faculty women in the natural sciences. The results from multiple regression analyses indicated that negative (e.g., sexist, hostile) departmental climates were related to lower job satisfaction. However, voice interacted with climate, such that women who perceived that they had more voice in departmental matters showed higher levels of job satisfaction than those who perceived having less voice. An additional regression indicated that mentoring by other women (but not men) in academia and effective departmental leadership were positively related to women's sense of voice. Theoretical and practical implications for the retention and success of women in male-dominated fields are discussed.

Counterfactual thinking entails the process of imagining alternatives to reality--what might have been. The present study examines the frequency, content, and emotional and cognitive concomitants of counterfactual thinking about past missed opportunities in midlife women. At age 43, nearly two-thirds of the sample of educated adult women reported having missed certain opportunities at some time in their lives. Most of the counterfactual thoughts concerned missed opportunities for greater challenge in work. Emotional distress at age 33 did not predict later counterfactual thought. Instead, counterfactual thinking at age 43 was associated with concurrent emotional distress. However, acknowledging counterfactual thinking about the past was also associated with envisioning ways to change things for the better in the future. This suggests the possibility that the negative appraisal often entailed in counterfactual thinking may be associated with emotional distress in the short run but with motivational benefits in the long run, at least for middle-aged women.KEY WORDS: Counterfactual thought; emotion; midlife women; motivation; work.I think I don't regret a single "excess" of my responsive youth--I only regret, in my chilled age, certain occasions and possibilities I didn't embrace.Henry James INTRODUCTIONPossible but unactualized states, or alternatives to reality, are called counterfactuals, thinking about counterfactuals is called counterfactual thought (Goodman, 1973;Kahneman & Tversky, 1982a;Kripke, 1980;Lewis, 1973 (Hampshire, 1983). In the present study, we examined the frequency and content of counterfactual thoughts about missed opportunities in midlife women. We also examined the relationship between counterfactual thought and past and present emotional distress as well as the relationship between counterfactual thoughts about the past and the future. Although a relatively new area for systematic empirical inquiry, counterfactual thought has already been implicated in a variety of psychological processes, including causal attribution , self-esteem (Roese & Olson, 1993), emotional reactions to life events (Davis, Lehman, Wortman, Silver, & Thompson, 1995;Gleicher et al., 1990;Kahneman & Tversky, 1982a, Landman, 1987Landman, 1995; Lehman, 87 (Macrae, 1992;Miller, Turnbull, & McFarland, 1990;Roese & Olson, 1995), and motivation (Johnson & Sherman, 1990;Markman, Gavanski, Sherman, & McMullen, 1993;Ruvolo & Markus, 1992).With the exception of the work on possible selves by Markus and Nurius (1986) as well as that on personally relevant counterfactual thought by Landman and Manis (1992) and very recently by Davis et al. (1995), virtually all the research targeting counteffactual thought to date has been carried out in the laboratory, typically employing written vignettes describing hypothetical decision makers, events, and outcomes. Therefore, many questions remain about the nature and implications of personal counterfactual thought.Markus and Nurius' (1986) notion of "possible selves," or cognitive/affecti...

The repres4ntation offemale faculty members in science and engineeringjeldr lags behind that oftheir countparts in the social scienues and humanities and aho faih to keep pace with the production offemale science and engineering doctorates. Research h b shown that equity cannot be achieved by waiting for women to fill the applicantpooZ,-instead, institutions mwt intedene by changing hiring practices and retention policies. This article desm'bes and evaluates early results ofone interventidn at the University ofMichigan: the creation ofafaculty committee designed to improve the rermitment and hiring offepale faculp members through peer education. One hiring cycle ajer the committee's creation, the authors found (a) reports ofchangedpractices in some search committees and departments, (b) an increase in the number andproportion of new hit'es who were women, and (c) a substantial increase in the knowledge and motivation ofthe members ofthe remitmedt committee with respect to improving the climateforfemalefacul~y memben

This two-year longitudinal study of 121 6-12-year-old children in the custody of their mothers following parental separation examined main and interacting effects of child's age and gender, frequency and regularity of visitation, father-child closeness, and parental legal conflict on children's self-esteem and behavioral adjustment at two time points. Predictors were found to have different implications for different groups of children and for children in different situations. Findings suggest the futility of seeking simple answers to whether ongoing contact with fathers following divorce is beneficial or detrimental for children.

The autobiographies of 49 eminent psychologists were content analyzed in terms of autobiographically consequential experiences (ACEs). Most memories for ACE were not single episodes. Episodic ACEs did, however, share many characteristics of "flashbulb" and vivid memories elicited in studies using more traditional experimental procedures. Memories were concentrated during the college and early adult years. Thus, as in other autobiographical memory studies that have used older subjects, there was a pronounced reminiscence effect. These results were considered in light of Erikson's theory of adult personality development.

Our focus in this paper is on the process of increasing the representation of women in STEM as it occurred in academic departments within a research university explicitly committed to diversifying the faculty in science and engineering fields. We used thematic analysis of interviews with 59 senior faculty drawn from 20 departments to identify forces that enabled or constrained demographic change over 13 years. The accounts by faculty from departments that most increased the representation of women included references to four enabling forces (open recognition of a serious problem coupled with shame about past circumstances; strong leadership on diversity from one or more department chairs; change-enabling features of the departmental and disciplinary context; and proactivity in pursuing diversity). The accounts by faculty from departments that did not increase diversity at all included reference to three constraining forces (viewing other priorities as more important than diversity; external factors that constrain or limit the possibility of change; and unfavorable features of the departmental context). Departments that increased faculty diversity somewhat expressed some enabling and some constraining forces, and omitted some. We discuss the implications of these findings for successful departmental change, particularly in the context of larger institutional change efforts.