Here's an article from this week's Chronicle
that we all will probably find of interest. Now instead
of asking your employers to do something new about
the problems female scientists face, you can ask
whether they are getting on board with Harvard,
Stanford, and Yale ...
Pat
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9 Research Universities Pledge to Treat
Female Scientists Better
By ANA MARIE COX
Leaders of nine top research universities signed a pledge Monday
to work toward better treatment of female faculty members in
science and engineering and to consider "potentially significant"
changes in university policies to promote equity. The pledge
followed a meeting at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
between the leaders of the universities and 25 female professors.
The conference was held at the invitation of three M.I.T. faculty
members who led a 1999 internal study of bias at the university --
Nancy Hopkins, Lotte Bailyn, and Lorna Gibson -- along with
Charles M. Vest, the president of M.I.T. The M.I.T. study, which
led officials at the institute to acknowledge that female faculty
members had been mistreated there for years, has prompted
widespread discussion among female scientists and engineers
nationwide.
Presidents and provosts from the California Institute of
Technology, Harvard University, M.I.T., Princeton University,
Stanford University, the University of California at Berkeley, the
University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, the University of
Pennsylvania, and Yale University attended. Representatives from
the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the
Ford Foundation, which sponsored the meeting, were also at the
meeting.
Ms. Hopkins said that the agreement of administrators that gender
discrimination does exist differentiated this meeting from previous
attempts to call attention to the issue. "There have been hundreds
of reports just like M.I.T.'s, collecting dust," said Ms. Hopkins,
"When the president says 'it's true,' then it's true." Of the group's
willingness to discuss the topic, she said, "I thought it was a
milestone that never could happen in my lifetime."
The group's closing statement said that barriers "still exist to the
full participation of women in science and engineering," and went
on to pinpoint three goals to work toward:
"A faculty whose diversity reflects that of the students we
educate."
"Equity for, and full participation by, women faculty."
"A profession, and institutions, in which individuals with
family responsibilities are not disadvantaged."
The statement went on to say that the goals the group has set for
itself "will require significant review of, and potentially significant
change in, the procedures within each university, and the scientific
and engineering establishment as a whole." The group agreed to
meet in about a year to share the specific plans made to achieve
their goals.
The female scientists at the meeting expressed full support for the
conference's outcome. Barbara Grosz, a professor of computer
science at Harvard, called the meeting "extraordinary" and
complimented the group's ability to recognize that "the issue
wasn't simple numbers, but a whole complexity of factors."
M.I.T.'s Mr. Vest agreed, saying that statistics and individual
accounts were both necessary to understand gender discrimination:
"Clearly, you need both."
Gladys Brown, interim director of the Office of Women in Higher
Education at the American Council on Education, did not attend
the meeting, but in commenting on the group's announcement, she
echoed Mr. Vest's statement. She said that the group's statement
seemed to focus on "structural components, but you're also
talking about the quality of work life."
Ms. Brown was generally pleased with the results of the M.I.T.
meeting, saying, "It is a tremendous effort." But, she said, "we
need to make sure there is an assessment and evaluation
component, and accountability." Mere goals don't do enough,
according to Ms. Brown. "The general consensus is that 'we'll
focus on these items,'" but "we need to make sure that each
campus is making the kind of strides it is committed to, but we
also need to hold individuals accountable. That means providing
rewards for those who have achieved these goals, and -- let's just
say 'disincentives' for those who do not measure up." Then, said
Ms. Brown, "you have a plan, rather than an acknowledgment of
the issue and the intent."
