You, Me, or Her

Abstract

We examined how university leaders described what and who needed to change in order to increase the representation of female faculty in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) departments. Thirty-one (28 men and 3 women) STEM departmental chairs and deans at a large, public university participated in semi-structured interviews. Data were examined using both qualitative and quantitative procedures. Analysis focused on participants' descriptions of responsibility for changes related to gender equity. Using the distinction of high versus low responsibility, themes were examined for their qualitative characteristics as well as their frequency. Leaders who exhibited high personal responsibility most frequently saw themselves as needing to change and also named their male colleagues as concurrently responsible for diversity. Conversely, leaders who exhibited low personal responsibility most frequently described female faculty as responsible and described women's attitudes and their ''choice'' to have a family as obstacles to gender diversity in STEM. We argue that the dimensions of high and low responsibility are useful additions to discussions of leadership, workplace diversity initiatives, and gender equity more broadly. To this end, we provide several methodological tools to examine these subtle, yet essential, aspects of how diversity and change efforts are imagined and discussed.

Ten Years toward Equity: Preliminary Results from a Follow-Up Case Study of Academic Computing Culture

“…As has been done in past qualitative work utilizing inductive thematic content analysis (McClelland and Holland, 2015; Moss-Racusin et al, 2015), the expansive body of research on culture in computer science, particularly related to academia, has been used to guide the analysis such that specific thematic categories arose organically from the data. Using the cloud-based software app Dedoose, two members of the research team were responsible for independently coding the data, beginning with a pilot test on a sub-sample of the data.…”

Challenging the Gendered Academic Hierarchy

“…In both local and in other (as an external reviewer) tenure and promotion cases, I tried to acknowledge and accentuate the (often unsung) work and importance of the candidate's mentoring of students as co-authors and coreviewers of journal articles. Even more effective is the work of researchers who turn their skills to collaborate on Status of Women reports within their institution (see Gaughan & Su, 2012, for a review), to document inequities (e.g., MIT Status of Women Report, 1999), and to systematically examine the attitudes and behaviors of gatekeepers such as academic administrators (like Shield's project; also see McClelland & Holland, 2015).…”

Men Faculty Engagement in Gender Equity Work in STEM: The Radicalization of "Doing the Right Thing"

“…In a separate study of academic leaders, researchers found that when leaders felt personally responsible for creating diversity change, they not only reflected on the personal ways in which they needed to change, but encouraged their subordinates (men) to do the same as they worked collectively toward more equitable policies and practices. On the other hand, when leaders expressed low personal responsibility for increasing gender diversity, they did not initiate meaningful change and perceived that the onus of responsibility for such changes lied with women faculty (McClelland & Holland, 2014).…”

“…The reasons for this discrepancy are debated and range from assertions that women are just not as interested as men are in fields like the hard sciences (i.e. physics, math, engineering, computer science), to women who choose an academic career in the hard sciences often depart from the field to start a family (Bailyn, 2003;Blickenstaff, 2005;Maranto & Griffin, 2011;McClelland & Holland, 2014) Bailyn (2003) calls for a revision of conceptions of gender equity which are satisfied with equality of opportunity for women based on male-constructed norms and/or conceptions of gender equity which tout the establishment of inclusionary policies and practices which acknowledge "an academic's outside life" as evidence gender equity has been achieved. Instead, she maintains that an "ideal image of gender equity," not only legitimates "the private sphere of family, community, and other personal involvements," but equalizes "the value placed on economic and noneconomic activity" (p. 140).…”

“…While the aforementioned studies demonstrate the potential for a "critical awareness antecedent" to inspire change behaviors. Other studies have documented the dubious relationship between awareness of inequities/discrimination and perceived responsibility/accountability for change (Buttner, Lowe, & Billings-Harris, 2006;McClelland & Holland, 2014). In their study of academic leaders' perceptions of responsibility for gender equity initiatives in STEM departments, McClelland and Holland (2014) found that awareness of gender inequities inspired high personal responsibility leaders to initiate change, whereas low personal responsibility leaders either failed to perceive that gender equity change was needed or if there was a perceived need for change ascribed responsibility for enacting change to others-especially women.…”