DIS: A Guide for Recruiting and Advancing Women Scientists and Engineers in Academia

National Academy Of Sciences, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

The Committee on Women in Science and Engineering (CWSE), National Research Council, of the National Academy of Sciences is preparing a guide to the best policies and programs that academic institutions have implemented to recruit, retain, and advance women in science and engineering in academia. The guide is meant to be a practical tool in the replication of successful programs at many academic institutions across the country. CWSE will use both formal and informal networks to identify the most successful programs for each level, e.g., undergraduate recruitment, reducing attrition in freshman and sophomore years, graduate student recruitment and retention, transition to postdoctoral fellowships. This will include contacting granting organizations, disciplinary societies, academic administration societies, faculty groups, and non-profit advocacy organizations. Programs from different size institutions, both public and private, will be reviewed. Identified programs will be asked to provide data on the increased participation of women resulting from the implementation of their programs. From this group a subset of programs will be selected for site visits. The project will include up to five site visits to institutions with successful programs to interview the students, faculty, and administrators involved. No institution will be identified by name in the guide. The target audience for the guide includes college and university presidents, deans, provosts and other administration officials, department chairs, faculty, and other individuals with the interest and capacity for establishing a successful program that promotes the participation of women in science and engineering. Other guides produced by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) have had a wide impact. Tens of thousands of copies of previous NAS guides have been disseminated worldwide. On Being A Scientist, the NAS guide on science ethics, has been reprinted in several languages. The NAS guide on mentoring, on which this guide will be modeled, Advisor, Teacher, Role Model, Friend: On Being a Mentor to Students in Science and Engineering, is distributed by some institutions to all their faculty, and serves as the basis of their mentoring efforts. Many other faculty mentoring programs are based on the mentoring guide.