Retention of Female STEM Faculty
by Wendy Enelow Tuesday, April 26, 2011
WENDY S. ENELOW, MRW, CCM, CPRW, JCTC. The "Executive's Resume Writer & Career Coach" Founder & President, Enelow Enterprises, Inc. Founder & Director, Resume Writing Academy. Training Consultant, TheLadders.com. Founder & Past Executive Director, Career Management Alliance. Founder & Past President, The Advantage Executive Job Search Center. CREDENTIALS: Master Resume Writer (MRW); Credentialed Career Manager (CCM); Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW); Certified Job & Career Transition Coach (JCTC).
Full Bio
On a recent flight to East Lansing, Michigan to present a workshop on nontraditional careers, I sat next to Avis Cohen, professor at the University of Maryland. Avis works for the ADVANCE Program for Inclusive Excellence at the University of Maryland which aims to transform their institutional culture by facilitating networks, offering individual mentoring and support, and offering information and strategic opportunities for women faculty in all areas of academia. The University of Maryland has partnered with the National Science Foundation (NSF) to increase retention of female faculty in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). The ADVANCE Program is conducting research to look at what’s really going on regarding retention. Why are so few female STEM faculty members becoming tenured?
What’s Holding Women Back?
Women have difficulty saying no; they find it challenging to negotiate; and work/life issues weigh more heavily on women. All of these factors often result in women being left behind and why many opt out of reaching tenure.
The Solution
The NSF’s ADVANCE Program has implemented a strategy of conducting first and third year site visits at all campuses that obtain such a grant and regular quarterly reports to be sure that programs stay on course, and are following the best practices to increase and retain women faculty in STEM fields. According to Avis, policies need to be implemented in order to change things structurally. The ADVANCE Program hopes to recommend the following policies:
1) Teaching relief – Allowing faculty members (male or female) one semester off after having a child.
2) Adding one year on to faculty member’s tenure clock. So rather than six years before reaching tenure, they have seven. In this way, individuals have an additional year to make sufficient progress in their research programs to obtain a positive response on their tenure decision.
3) Educate tenure and promotion committees. Many older male faculty don’t understand how to evaluate interdisciplinary research work, which women are more likely to do. This has traditionally made it more difficult for women to obtain tenure than men.
Avis did mention that they will also be surveying faculty to see what policies they need.
Why Should We Care?
Young women and girls believe they can do something if they see a woman do it. If there are more female faculty members teaching science, technology, engineering, and math, females are more apt to envision a career for themselves in one of those career areas. Female educators in STEM provide that very important role model. Not only is this important at four-year colleges, but also at two-year colleges and high schools as well.
What’s Holding Women Back?
Women have difficulty saying no; they find it challenging to negotiate; and work/life issues weigh more heavily on women. All of these factors often result in women being left behind and why many opt out of reaching tenure.
The Solution
The NSF’s ADVANCE Program has implemented a strategy of conducting first and third year site visits at all campuses that obtain such a grant and regular quarterly reports to be sure that programs stay on course, and are following the best practices to increase and retain women faculty in STEM fields. According to Avis, policies need to be implemented in order to change things structurally. The ADVANCE Program hopes to recommend the following policies:
1) Teaching relief – Allowing faculty members (male or female) one semester off after having a child.
2) Adding one year on to faculty member’s tenure clock. So rather than six years before reaching tenure, they have seven. In this way, individuals have an additional year to make sufficient progress in their research programs to obtain a positive response on their tenure decision.
3) Educate tenure and promotion committees. Many older male faculty don’t understand how to evaluate interdisciplinary research work, which women are more likely to do. This has traditionally made it more difficult for women to obtain tenure than men.
Avis did mention that they will also be surveying faculty to see what policies they need.
Why Should We Care?
Young women and girls believe they can do something if they see a woman do it. If there are more female faculty members teaching science, technology, engineering, and math, females are more apt to envision a career for themselves in one of those career areas. Female educators in STEM provide that very important role model. Not only is this important at four-year colleges, but also at two-year colleges and high schools as well.