Breaking barriers and creating inclusiveness: Lessons of organizational transformation to advance women faculty in academic science and engineering

Abstract

To increase the representation and participation of women and other minorities in organizations, workplaces must become more inclusive. For such change to be successful and sustainable, organizations must systematically break down the barriers constraining women's participation and effectiveness; improve their prevailing structures, policies, and practices; and engender transformation in their climates. This article presents the experience of 19 U.S. universities, funded by the National Science Foundation's ADVANCE Institutional Transformation program, that have embraced comprehensive transformation for improved gender representation and inclusion in science and engineering disciplines. It describes the facilitating factors, program initiatives, institutionalization, and outcomes of their transformation, and suggests a transformation model that all organizations can use to create an inclusive and productive workplace for a diverse workforce. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Invisible but Essential: The Role of Professional Networks in Promoting Faculty Agency in Career Advancement

“…Consistent with previous research on the importance of professional networks (Bilimoria et al 2008;Blau et al 2010;Bryson 2004;O'Meara and Niehaus 2013;Ryan et al, 2012;Sagaria and Dickens, 1997;Williams and Williams 2006), we found that perceived network capital overall was a significant, positive predictor of agency in career advancement, both in perspective and behavior. This study builds on and contributes to the discussion of the importance of faculty networks by exploring how the relationship between perceived network capital and agency in career advancement may differ based on network location and career stage.…”

“…These types of networks are related to a wide array of career outcomes, including employment opportunities (Brass, Galaskiewicz, Greve, and Tsai 2004;Ibarra and Deshpande 2004), career advancement (Brass et al 2004;Ibarra and Deshpande 2004;Seibert et al 2001), power and influence (Brass et al 2004;Ibarra and Deshpande 2004), higher salary (Seibert et al 2001), and cognitive flexibility in thinking about one's career (Higgins 2001). Within academia, networks have been found to influence faculty research productivity (Blau, Currie, Croson, and Ginther 2010;Bryson 2004;O'Meara and Niehaus 2013;Sagaria and Dickens, 1997), grant productivity (Rawlings and McFarland 2011), and advancement on the tenure track (Bilimoria, Joy, and Liang 2008;Williams and Williams 2006).…”

Collaboration and Gender Equity among Academic Scientists

“…Although our framing was around collaboration, our findings suggest that women's professional outcomes may be better in units where they have access to the same resources, recognition, and professional relationships as men. Substantial research has pointed to how women may not be able to access the same resources as men [43,68,73,78,[81][82][83][84][85][86][87]; for example women may receive less investment through research funds, which limits their research productivity. The existing literature also points to the crucial role that relationships play in academic workplaces [6,7,67,74,[88][89][90][91][92][93][94].…”

Easing the Tortuous Road that Underrepresented Minorities Travel to Become Engineering Faculty

“…18 The American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) compiled 2012 data for all engineering degrees and reported that underrepresented ethnic minorities held 12.6% of B.S. degrees, 7.9% of M.S.…”

“…Similarly, although women held 18.4% of the B.S degrees and 22% of the Ph.D.'s; only 13% of the faculty was women; of which only 8.7% held the rank of full professor. 19 Studies have also shown that the gap between male and female faculty was narrower in early career and widens significantly by 15 years after their Ph.D. 18 Underrepresented minorities, both ethnic and gender based, need to comprise at least 15% of academia before they can influence the culture and agenda. 7 The Computing Research Association for Women (CRA-W) has several mentoring programs for women in computer science pursuing an industrial position.…”