Improving Retention and Facilitating Career Reentry for Women Scientists with a Consortium of Universities

Yale University, New Haven CT

Investigators

Abstract

This project uses a several-pronged approach, focusing on the postdoctoral community where attrition is both substantial and gendered, in order to assess ways to increase the retention of women scientists in the academic work force. First, better information about why postdocs drop out will help us target policies more effectively. In most research universities, postdocs do not come under the watchful eyes of deans and provosts because they are neither graduate students nor faculty. Given the importance of postdoctoral training for scientific careers, this neglect has become a structural problem for women who are dropping out at a fast clip. Second, we will develop MentorSTEM into an effective and feasible way for universities to provide systematic mentoring to postdocs, beginning with women postdocs. Our experimental design allows us to ?learn by doing,? to improve mentoring content and delivery based on regular and repeated evaluation of the scholarly success and morale of those being mentored. A variety of mentoring types will be used and tested for effectiveness at retaining the postdocs in the academic work force. Over the course of this program, we will develop and test a variety of ways to support these postdocs, as well as those who are mentoring them, to achieve scholarly excellence. In the longer run, we gain from this project ways to improve both the quality of life and the quality of scholarship for the entire scientific community. Our commitment to diversity rests on the conviction that knowledge flourishes best when there are no barriers to entry. We are eager to build an environment in which all members of the academic community can grow and flourish as scholars, and in which men and women alike can balance family and career. Failure to remove obstacles to success, now unevenly in the paths of women and minority scholars, places an unacceptable tax on the possibilities for scientific excellence.