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Suggested Citation:"3. Effectiveness of Intervention Models." National Research Council. 1991. Women in Science and Engineering: Increasing Their Numbers in the 1990s: A Statement on Policy and Strategy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1878.
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3
EFFECTIVENESS OF INTERVENTION MODELS

In spite of growing awareness of the Nation's increasing need for scientists and engineers, few policies or programs have been implemented to attract and retain women in these occupations in substantial numbers. However, a few effective intervention programs have been implemented sporadically throughout the pipeline, beginning at the precollege level and continuing through employment. For purposes of discussion, intervention programs are defined as

efforts to open up the pathway to science and engineering careers for underrepresented groups.... usually a series of activities ... to address one or more specific factors which affect females' or minorities' interest, motivation, or skills in science, mathematics, or engineering (Matyas and Malcom, 1991).

A recent study of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS; Matyas and Malcom, 1991) found that, for the six groups targeted by intervention programs (precollege, general undergraduate, S&E undergraduate, general graduate, S&E graduate, and faculty), 51 percent of such programs targeted "`minorities only' and `all' students with special efforts for minorities.' By contrast, only 9 percent of the intervention programs targeted "`women only' and `all' students with special efforts for women," and another 28 percent targeted "`minorities and women' and `all' students with special efforts for minorities and women." The study found that programs targeting minority students do serve women: 51 percent of those participating in such programs are women, and black women participate to a much higher extent than do Hispanic and American Indian women.

Suggested Citation:"3. Effectiveness of Intervention Models." National Research Council. 1991. Women in Science and Engineering: Increasing Their Numbers in the 1990s: A Statement on Policy and Strategy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1878.
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The Committee believes that it can play an effective role in recommending areas where the public and private sectors alike can mount intervention programs and expand successful efforts to identify, educate, and employ talented women in science and engineering. The programs included in this section are examples of work under way——and by no means is this chapter intended to be an exhaustive treatment of intervention models.

Precollege Programs

Most of the programs currently under way to increase the participation of women in science and engineering are directed at the precollege level. For instance, the National Research Council recently sponsored studies of both precollege mathematics and biology (MSEB/ BMS, 1989; NRC, 1989): Professional scientific societies have sponsored a variety of programs for high school students——for example, the American Institute of Physics' Science Education for Equity Reform (SEER) and the American Chemical Society's course, "Chemistry in the Community"——as have state boards of education (Silverstein, 1990; Lee, 1991), private corporations, and universities (Matyas, 1987). In major U.S. cities, it is not uncommon to find a dozen or more intervention programs in which precollege students are actively engaged in science and math activities (Kay, 1990).

The range of precollege intervention programs is broad, including both long- and short-term projects. Activities associated with short-term projects——those usually lasting one or two days——are career information, course information, and role models. In addition to these activities, long-

Suggested Citation:"3. Effectiveness of Intervention Models." National Research Council. 1991. Women in Science and Engineering: Increasing Their Numbers in the 1990s: A Statement on Policy and Strategy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1878.
×

term projects——those of several consecutive days, weekends, or weeks——often have the following components: hands-on experience, problem-solving and test-taking exercises, and discussions of financial aid.

Some federal agencies, such as the U.S. Department of Energy, have funded summer laboratory experiences for high school students. A new federal initiative has as one of its goals the expansion of opportunities in science and engineering for these students: the Committee on Education and Human Resources of the Federal Coordinating Council for Science, Engineering, and Technology (FCCSET) has "established strategic objectives and priorities for funding Federal programs in mathematics, science, engineering and technology education" (FCCSET, 1991) to meet the national education goal that "by the year 2000, U.S. students will be first in the world in science and mathematics achievement." To that end, the President's fiscal year 1992 budget requested $1.94 billion for mathematics and science education programs; $660 million was requested for precollege programs, including an increase of 28.4 percent in funding for precollege programs than enacted for fiscal year 1991. This increase represents two-thirds of the total increase of $225 million for math and science education.

Undergraduate Programs

Prior to the 1991 AAAS study, there were no comprehensive studies of interventions targeting women majoring in a science or engineering discipline at the undergraduate level. However, research on a limited number of such programs has shown that those most effective——that is, those most successful in awarding bachelor's degrees in the sciences and engineering to women——share common elements:

Suggested Citation:"3. Effectiveness of Intervention Models." National Research Council. 1991. Women in Science and Engineering: Increasing Their Numbers in the 1990s: A Statement on Policy and Strategy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1878.
×
  • having a developed program of recruitment and retention activities;

  • using a variety of admission criteria to predict the performance of female students in S&E study;

  • providing opportunities for female students to interact with professionals in academe, industry, and government;

  • offering informed undergraduate and graduate counseling about course choices and future job opportunities;

  • developing support or networking groups——both informal gatherings and the more structured meetings of student chapters of professional organizations, such as the Society of Women Engineers——to reduce feelings of isolation and alienation for women in traditionally masculine fields; and

  • cultivating departmental and campus climates that encourage academic achievement among women.

Undergraduate intervention programs fall into four basic types:

  1. general retention programs providing academic support, such as tutoring, study skills courses/centers, and bridge programs ''to assist students in the transition from high school to college;"

  2. science and engineering recruitment and retention programs, such as scholarships and campus chapters of professional societies;

  3. offices of minority affairs and cultural centers whose activities relate to minorities in general or to specific racial/ethnic groups; and

  4. offices of women's affairs or women's studies programs (Matyas and Malcom, 1991).

Some of these strategies are currently being tested at institutions

Suggested Citation:"3. Effectiveness of Intervention Models." National Research Council. 1991. Women in Science and Engineering: Increasing Their Numbers in the 1990s: A Statement on Policy and Strategy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1878.
×

across the country——for instance, the Women in Math and Science Program at Rutgers University's Douglass College and at the University of Colorado-Boulder and Purdue University (Keith and Keith, 1990). The Douglass program was begun in 1986 to retain high school, undergraduate, and graduate women who have expressed interest and ability in mathematics and science.4 The Committee on Women in Science and Engineering learned recently that other institutions of higher education are incorporating aspects of the Douglass program on their campuses. For instance, a 1991 announcement to incoming students at Washington State University noted that

Stephenson North Residence Hall has now designated a floor for women in math, science, and engineering and a floor for men in math, science, and engineering .... Many programs [to] be offered to ... students include tutorials, study room, study groups, [and] peer advising.

Academic counseling and tutoring, faculty interaction, and research experience are important for both male and female students in science and

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The Douglass program has 10 components: Bunting-Cobb Residence Hall for 99 undergraduate women majoring in math, science, and engineering and 10 graduate women, who serve as Bunting-Cobb Fellows/mentors to the undergraduates; peer study groups, each led by a graduate student, "whose purpose is to get students to help each other;" peer tutoring by upperclass undergraduates; study partnerships; Douglass Science Management Intern Program, whereby seniors majoring in math, science, or psychology work in scientific or technological corporations for one semester; career panels, held each semester, where women employed as mathematicians, scientists, and engineers can share career information and serve as role models for students; visits to the laboratories of female scientists and engineers, who discuss their research; informal talks with women faculty, Big Sister/Little Sister Program, in which a first-year student may choose to have an upperclass woman as her "big sister;" and distribution of information on research/internship opportunities (Kennedy, 1990; see also Mappen, 1990).

Suggested Citation:"3. Effectiveness of Intervention Models." National Research Council. 1991. Women in Science and Engineering: Increasing Their Numbers in the 1990s: A Statement on Policy and Strategy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1878.
×

engineering. Ideally, undergraduate counselors are informed about the special problems faced by many women in traditionally "masculine" fields of study, such as lack of appropriate communication skills (i.e., "assertiveness, debating, standing firm, and even bluffing"), and utilize specific counseling strategies that can increase women's persistence in these fields (Mulnix, 1990). However, training programs for undergraduate academic counselors do not always address these issues in detail.

Various studies show that many talented young women experience a loss of self-confidence early in their undergraduate years (Arnold, 1989). This may be mitigated through a variety of mechanisms, including faculty interactions, research experiences, work-study programs, and other opportunities to gain hands-on experience in science or engineering (Brown, 1990; McLaren, 1990).5 One particular "success story" is Carleton College, Minnesota, where the percentage of women receiving bachelor's degrees in chemistry increased from 18 percent in 1970 to 50 percent in 1991, although the ratio of men to women remained stable:

[No] rigorous studies have. been conducted to determine what produced these changes, ... [but] the faculty are very important in creating an environment that is supportive of women students. For the past 15 years, at least one of the six faculty members in the chemistry department has been a woman.... Students, both male and female, have commented that their presence has sent a message that women can expect to find satisfaction and success in a career in science.... There is an expectation that all students, regardless of sex, will be challenged and will rise to meet the challenges presented to them. Gender is

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An example of a work-study program that makes a special effort to involve women students is the Department of Energy's National Laboratory Cooperative Summer Program.

Suggested Citation:"3. Effectiveness of Intervention Models." National Research Council. 1991. Women in Science and Engineering: Increasing Their Numbers in the 1990s: A Statement on Policy and Strategy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1878.
×

never used as a factor in the selection of student teaching assistants or research associates, and students in the department are well aware of this policy (Finholt, 1990).

Several private corporations fund programs targeted to under-participating groups. For instance, A&T offers undergraduate scholarship programs in ceramics engineering, chemistry, computer science, mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, physics, mathematics, statistics, and materials science. But interventions directed to potential female scientists and engineers, like many other innovations in science, mathematics, and engineering education, lack visibility and thus are not used by a broader base of educators. For this reason, it is vitally important to disseminate information about effective programs.

Graduate Programs

In general, graduate intervention programs address admissions, continuing education, financial aid, academic programs, student development, counseling, and support services (Bogart, 1984). The recent AAAS study found that graduate programs targeting students in the sciences and engineering fell within five categories:

  1. fellowships for research,

  2. Health Careers Opportunities Program,

  3. graduate recruitment and retention programs in science and/or engineering,

  4. seminars for graduate students who will work as teaching assistants, and

Suggested Citation:"3. Effectiveness of Intervention Models." National Research Council. 1991. Women in Science and Engineering: Increasing Their Numbers in the 1990s: A Statement on Policy and Strategy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1878.
×
  1. bridge programs which assist students in the transition from undergraduate to graduate studies (Matyas and Malcom, 1991).

Recent recommendations for expanding opportunities for women in the sciences and engineering at the graduate level include federal funding support for graduate S&E education for women, provision of federal agency funds as an incentive to researchers to employ female graduate students, and federal monitoring of progress toward these goals (Task Force, 1988; OTA, 1988). At the same time, however, the science community cannot reach consensus about what should have priority in the federal budget: projects such as mapping the human genome and the Superconducting Super Collider compete directly with basic research (and the stipends paid to research assistants), and it is uncertain how Congress will distribute funds from year to year (OTA, 1990):

[Big] projects have glamor on their side ... [but] if they get a priority over the less visible work going on in university and government labs, one loser will be the diversity of the country's scientific competence. Another will be the training of young scientists (The Washington Post, 1991).

Research-oriented liberal arts colleges are more effective than the highly selective research universities at encouraging both female and male students to pursue scientific and engineering careers (Oberlin College, 1986a & b). This points to a need in the major research universities for closer faculty contacts, which would benefit not only women but all students. CWSE learned that some research universities have reacted positively to this finding. The AAAS study found that ''programs designed to recruit and/or retain women and minorities in science and engineering were most likely to be found at Research Universities," at both the

Suggested Citation:"3. Effectiveness of Intervention Models." National Research Council. 1991. Women in Science and Engineering: Increasing Their Numbers in the 1990s: A Statement on Policy and Strategy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1878.
×

undergraduate and the graduate levels (Matyas and Malcolm, 1991). For instance, the University of Chicago has established a one-semester program in which graduate students are paired with "experienced faculty who are teaching in the school's core curriculum" (Cheney, 1990).

Career Interventions

A technique that has proven successful at the postdoctoral and professional levels is networking: groups of women meet together, with or without a facilitator, to provide encouragement and to discuss special academic, technical, and social problems that they are facing, while others suggest solutions to related problems. For instance, the American Physical Society, through its Committee on the Status of Women in Physics, is creating a network for graduate women in physics by conducting workshops on career counseling and sponsoring hospitality suites at the society's annual and regional meetings.

Several researchers have reported that marriage and motherhood do not have consistently negative effects on the employment status, publication rates, and salaries of women scientists and engineers (Zuckerman, 1987). Nonetheless, recent data imply that assistance in handling family responsibilities, perhaps through assistance with child care, can help to remove at least one barrier to full-time employment (Women's Bureau, 1988). Many employers have implemented a variety of programs——such as on-site child care centers, voucher systems to subsidize child care costs, programs for part-time or emergency care, job sharing voluntary reduced time, flextime, and work-at-home options——in order to retain their female employees. A 1984 survey by the National Employer-Supported Child Care

Suggested Citation:"3. Effectiveness of Intervention Models." National Research Council. 1991. Women in Science and Engineering: Increasing Their Numbers in the 1990s: A Statement on Policy and Strategy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1878.
×

Project found that of the 178 responding companies, 90 percent said that such child care services had improved employee morale and 85 percent said that their ability to recruit had been affected positively.

Academe

A report from the NRC's Committee on the Education and Employment of Women in Science and Engineering, Climbing the Academic Ladder. Doctoral Women Scientists in Academe (CEEWISE, 1979), explored the status of women in faculty, postdoctoral, and advisory posts, finding that women scientists were (1) concentrated in the lower ranks and in off-ladder positions, (2) typically paid less than their male colleagues at the same rank, and (3) less likely than men to be awarded tenure. A subsequent report, Career Outcomes in a Matched Sample of Men and Women Ph.D.s: An Analytical Report (CEEWISE, 1981), indicated that (1) these differences remain even when men and women are closely matched by education, experience, and type of employment and (2) the disparities in pay and advancement are not explained by what are traditionally considered important factors——the perceived greater restraints on career mobility or greater likelihood that women have in the past interrupted their careers for child-rearing. In still another study, CEEWISE (1983) found that between 1977 and 1981:

  • In the major research universities, women held 24 percent of the assistant professorships, but only 3 percent of the full professorships.

  • Women scientists were still twice or three times as likely as men to

Suggested Citation:"3. Effectiveness of Intervention Models." National Research Council. 1991. Women in Science and Engineering: Increasing Their Numbers in the 1990s: A Statement on Policy and Strategy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1878.
×

hold nonfaculty (instructor/lecturer) appointments, an increase since 1977.

  • In general, recent women Ph.D.s were found in junior faculty positions in proportions exceeding their availability in the doctoral pool.

  • Promotions of junior faculty showed wide sex differences: in the group of top 50 institutions (ranked by R&D expenditures), for example, three-fourths of the men, but only one-half of the women, were promoted from assistant professor to a higher rank in those years.

  • Overall, the proportion of women scientists who were tenured continued to be lower than for men.

  • After controlling for rank, salary differences for men and women persist in most fields, especially in chemistry and the medical sciences.

Although data in the Doctorate Records File and from the American Council on Education, the National Center for Education Statistics, and several professional societies reveal that while the proportion of doctorates earned by women across almost all scientific fields has risen dramatically in the last decade (in general, women receive about 27 percent of Ph.D.s each year), their employment on faculties has not. For instance, the number of women Ph.D.s in physics has increased by a factor of two in 10 years, but their rate of employment on physics faculties has shown little change. Similarly, the number of women on S&E faculties is small in engineering (in which the number of women Ph.D.s increased by a factor of five) and in chemistry (where women are also getting Ph.D.s in very large numbers). On the other hand, women are quite successful in gaining faculty positions in biology.

Suggested Citation:"3. Effectiveness of Intervention Models." National Research Council. 1991. Women in Science and Engineering: Increasing Their Numbers in the 1990s: A Statement on Policy and Strategy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1878.
×

Granted that faculty size in general has not been growing very much, the fraction of women hired and promoted still appears to be below what might be expected on a proportional basis. The number of women faculty increased in each academic rank between 1972 and 1985 (NSF, 1988). However, they made up only 28 percent of the total full-time instructional faculty in 1985 and were clustered (55 percent) in the lower ranks of assistant professors. or instructors in contrast to 70 percent of all men, who were mostly professors or associate professors. By discipline the lowest percentages of tenured women faculty were in the physical sciences, mathematics, and the environmental sciences in 1987. Nonetheless, the prospects for employment in academe may be better for women today than in 1977 and 1981. At the same time that the numbers of women leaving graduate school are increasing, the availability of positions in colleges and universities, where most women scientists have historically been employed, is expected to be greater than in the past because of retirements by many current faculty.

Between 1974 and 1980 NSF, through the National Science Board, established innovative targeted programs for faculty——funding short courses, the Female Visitation Science Program, science career workshops, and the Dissertation Completion and Junior Female Scholar Awards. More recently, NSF programs for S&E faculty fall within the purview of its Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR) and include visiting professorships for women and 100 Faculty Awards to assist tenured but not yet full professors in their research for a five-year period. About 82 percent of NSF's 1991 budget is otherwise devoted to the regular research programs and is available to male and female scientists.

While intervention models targeting women faculty are few in

Suggested Citation:"3. Effectiveness of Intervention Models." National Research Council. 1991. Women in Science and Engineering: Increasing Their Numbers in the 1990s: A Statement on Policy and Strategy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1878.
×

number, women faculty at some institutions have been able to effect change by such means as establishing their own informal network. For instance, women faculty in science and engineering at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor organized themselves as Michigan Women in the Sciences, initially to provide moral support for each other. Less than a decade later, the group had worked with the administration to establish a Women in Science Program that assists both faculty and students (precollege and undergraduate) through such activities as publishing a Resource Directory of Michigan Women in Science, a speakers' bureau, and a computer conference system for women engineering graduate students (Davis, 1990).

Industry

Industrial employers have cautiously implemented a large number of programs to attract and retain women scientists and engineers. In addition to starting salaries comparable to, and sometimes higher than, those offered to men, the private sector has also responded to the potential conflict between "the previously separate worlds of work and family" (Nieva, 1985). Merton (1973) has described the pressures scientists feel to be creative and to stay abreast of developments in their field. Time and scheduling problems are major sources of work-family conflicts (Nieva, 1985; Pleck, Staines, and Long, 1978; Galinsky, 1988) and can affect one's productivity (Galinsky and Stein, 1989). Consequently, some companies have implemented policies to promote a better balance between career and family responsibilities (General Mills, 1981; Reskin and Hartmann, 1986;

Suggested Citation:"3. Effectiveness of Intervention Models." National Research Council. 1991. Women in Science and Engineering: Increasing Their Numbers in the 1990s: A Statement on Policy and Strategy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1878.
×

Belsky, 1989).6 To retain their S&E employees, other companies offer flexible benefits packages that include health insurance, dental and/or vision coverage, life insurance, pension plans, and a reimbursable (pretax) employees' spending account. Another means of retaining employees is the availability of an education package. Tuition-reimbursement programs may enable an employee to develop or expand his or her knowledge in a work-related discipline. In addition, some companies provide similar benefits to the employee's spouse and child.

As the labor supply tightens, the current employment situation for women may change for the better, particularly if effective intervention programs are widely disseminated. For both campus and company, it might be useful to sensitize managers to situations of inequity by discussion, films, etc. For instance, Hewlett-Packard has established a program to increase the sensitivity of managers, to teach ''them about their own gender biases and about different cultures and races and to inform them about the company's needs in terms of employee training and development" (Catalyst, 1988). Mentoring is also important for enhancing the performance of employees, especially women employees. Well-thought-out mentoring guidelines are available (e.g., Corning Incorporated, 1990; Catalyst, 1990),

6

Such policies have resulted in a smorgasbord of programs: job-sharing, in which either spouse may share a job outside the home with another employee, perhaps even his or her spouse; part-time work, often with full-time benefits; assistance in locating, obtaining, and improving the quality of child care; reimbursement or direct provision of child-care services; flextime, which allows an employee to work a full day whose starting tune varies within a stated (usually two-hour) period; elder care, "providing some type of assistance with the daily living activities for an elderly relative who is chronically frail, ill, or disabled" (Galinsky and Stein, 1989); parental leave; and alternative work schedules for full-tune employees, not restricted by an eight-hour day, five days each week.

Suggested Citation:"3. Effectiveness of Intervention Models." National Research Council. 1991. Women in Science and Engineering: Increasing Their Numbers in the 1990s: A Statement on Policy and Strategy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1878.
×

and in some companies, each new woman employee is able to choose a mentor from a list of suitable volunteers. Another approach that has been found helpful in some companies is building in accountability by basing some fraction of the performance appraisal of the manager on affirmative action performance——specifically, hiring, promotion, and development of female employees (Latham and Wesley, 1981; Catalyst, 1991a). Tenneco, for example, "[bases] a significant portion of each division's executive bonus pool on whether that division meets all of the stated goals for hiring and promoting women and minorities" (Catalyst, 1991b). Such accountability approaches might also have applicability to colleges and universities.

In general, businesses are responding to the issues of "company climate" by including women in on-the-job and inservice training exercises that provide additional skills to women for various technical and managerial positions. Still other private companies, such as Corning, Tenneco, and Xerox, have established women's forums and provided opportunities for networking among women employees (McKee, 1991). Among effective interventions are assistance with child and elder care; flexible work arrangements including flextime, flexiplace, and job sharing; and training for supervisors in techniques for making jobs "doable" for women and for effectively assessing women's performance in those jobs. Nevertheless, many of these interventions are single efforts that produce only limited results. In many cases, women still find themselves isolated, with few women in senior positions to serve as role models and/or colleagues.

Government

Some programs authorized by the U.S. Office of Personnel Man-

Suggested Citation:"3. Effectiveness of Intervention Models." National Research Council. 1991. Women in Science and Engineering: Increasing Their Numbers in the 1990s: A Statement on Policy and Strategy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1878.
×

agement (OPM) for application throughout the Civil Service might aid in attracting and retaining women scientists and engineers. For instance, OPM (1988) believes that generous leave, health benefits, flexible and compressed work schedules, leave for parental and family responsibilities, part-time employment, job sharing, and leave transfer programs are enticements for continued employment within the federal sector. In addition, the President's Council on Management Improvement implemented "flexiplace" on February 12, 1990, to enable federal employees to work at home; although still considered a pilot project, the 27 participating federal agencies cite benefits including increased worker productivity and decreased overhead costs, absenteeism, and turnover (Segal, 1991). However, many of these benefits are not accessible to federal scientists and engineers, male or female, whose major work activities are primarily research and development (R&D, 24.8 percent), design (8.9 percent), data collection and processing (7.9 percent), natural resource operations (7.9 percent), and management (5.9 percent) (NSF, 1989).

Programs targeted particularly to federally employed women scientists and engineers are often initiated by individual federal agencies. For example, 55 percent of the employees of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are women and minorities: women, including minority women, comprise 48 percent of its total work force and 25 percent of its S&E work force (Reilly, 1990). However, most women and minorities at EPA are employed in nonsupervisory positions, at GS-10 or below, a situation that must be reexamined in consideration of the changing U.S. demography. To address this and other issues, Administrator William K. Reilly established EPA's Study on Cultural Diversity in its Work force, whose findings and recommendations are expected in November 1991.

Suggested Citation:"3. Effectiveness of Intervention Models." National Research Council. 1991. Women in Science and Engineering: Increasing Their Numbers in the 1990s: A Statement on Policy and Strategy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1878.
×

The U.S. Department of Energy's programs for retention of women scientists and engineers include on-site child care facilities, wellness programs (e.g., on-site mammograms), employee assistance programs (counseling and referral for problems related to family, drugs, alcohol, and stress), parental leave programs, informal flexible schedules with the option of part-time employment, and summer recreational programs for dependent children, as well as programs such as Invitation to Lead, Management. Development, Executive Development, and Leadership Development for Senior Management (not all laboratories offer all programs). Participants in a meeting convened by DOE's Office of University and Science Education Programs concluded that "there must be effective support for programs which are designed to increase upward mobility of women." Their recommendations include the following:

  • release time for women scientists to engage in outreach activities to educate and excite students to the career opportunities available to women with technical backgrounds;

  • policies for training and retraining including flextime, educational leaves of absence, and experience as a detailee to HQ and/or operations;

  • women's committees to encourage communication and support professional development and mentoring for young people;

  • vigorous efforts to examine pay equity, ranking, promotion, and recruitment of women and to make the findings public; and

  • corrective action to address the current concentration of R&D women in the lower ranks of Laboratory S&E staffs (DOE, 1991).

Suggested Citation:"3. Effectiveness of Intervention Models." National Research Council. 1991. Women in Science and Engineering: Increasing Their Numbers in the 1990s: A Statement on Policy and Strategy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1878.
×

Priority Issues

The array of programs that have been mounted over the years to encourage women to enter science and engineering careers——and to remain there——makes it difficult to identify and promote particularly effective intervention models. The Committee has selected ''intervention programs" as the subject of its first annual conference in 1991. The conference is the first of several steps that might be taken to enhance current intervention models. The conference has as its goals:

  • reviewing the spectrum of postsecondary programs supported by the federal government and the private sector to increase the number of potential and practicing scientists and engineers;

  • delineating effective components of programs that increase the number and quality of U.S. scientists and engineers, with particular reference to women; and

  • developing models that can be duplicated by participants.

Priority must also be given to:

  • collecting and disseminating systematic data on programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels to sustain the flow of talented women into S&E careers and

  • encouraging the development of reliable "outcome measures" to assess the specific contribution of program components to career outcomes for women.

Questions for the Committee to consider during the next three years include:

Suggested Citation:"3. Effectiveness of Intervention Models." National Research Council. 1991. Women in Science and Engineering: Increasing Their Numbers in the 1990s: A Statement on Policy and Strategy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1878.
×
  • Is intervention good public policy?

  • What evidence shows that intervention programs work?

  • Are intervention programs more successful at the regional level, when an entire organization is involved, or when directed at a single department (either in industry or academe)?

  • What effective models are available at the undergraduate, graduate, and career levels?

  • Which ones target specific groups, disciplines, and issues?

Suggested Citation:"3. Effectiveness of Intervention Models." National Research Council. 1991. Women in Science and Engineering: Increasing Their Numbers in the 1990s: A Statement on Policy and Strategy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1878.
×
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Suggested Citation:"3. Effectiveness of Intervention Models." National Research Council. 1991. Women in Science and Engineering: Increasing Their Numbers in the 1990s: A Statement on Policy and Strategy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1878.
×
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Suggested Citation:"3. Effectiveness of Intervention Models." National Research Council. 1991. Women in Science and Engineering: Increasing Their Numbers in the 1990s: A Statement on Policy and Strategy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1878.
×
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Suggested Citation:"3. Effectiveness of Intervention Models." National Research Council. 1991. Women in Science and Engineering: Increasing Their Numbers in the 1990s: A Statement on Policy and Strategy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1878.
×
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Suggested Citation:"3. Effectiveness of Intervention Models." National Research Council. 1991. Women in Science and Engineering: Increasing Their Numbers in the 1990s: A Statement on Policy and Strategy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1878.
×
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Suggested Citation:"3. Effectiveness of Intervention Models." National Research Council. 1991. Women in Science and Engineering: Increasing Their Numbers in the 1990s: A Statement on Policy and Strategy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1878.
×
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Suggested Citation:"3. Effectiveness of Intervention Models." National Research Council. 1991. Women in Science and Engineering: Increasing Their Numbers in the 1990s: A Statement on Policy and Strategy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1878.
×
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Suggested Citation:"3. Effectiveness of Intervention Models." National Research Council. 1991. Women in Science and Engineering: Increasing Their Numbers in the 1990s: A Statement on Policy and Strategy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1878.
×
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Suggested Citation:"3. Effectiveness of Intervention Models." National Research Council. 1991. Women in Science and Engineering: Increasing Their Numbers in the 1990s: A Statement on Policy and Strategy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1878.
×
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Suggested Citation:"3. Effectiveness of Intervention Models." National Research Council. 1991. Women in Science and Engineering: Increasing Their Numbers in the 1990s: A Statement on Policy and Strategy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1878.
×
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Suggested Citation:"3. Effectiveness of Intervention Models." National Research Council. 1991. Women in Science and Engineering: Increasing Their Numbers in the 1990s: A Statement on Policy and Strategy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1878.
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Suggested Citation:"3. Effectiveness of Intervention Models." National Research Council. 1991. Women in Science and Engineering: Increasing Their Numbers in the 1990s: A Statement on Policy and Strategy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1878.
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Suggested Citation:"3. Effectiveness of Intervention Models." National Research Council. 1991. Women in Science and Engineering: Increasing Their Numbers in the 1990s: A Statement on Policy and Strategy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1878.
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Suggested Citation:"3. Effectiveness of Intervention Models." National Research Council. 1991. Women in Science and Engineering: Increasing Their Numbers in the 1990s: A Statement on Policy and Strategy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1878.
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Suggested Citation:"3. Effectiveness of Intervention Models." National Research Council. 1991. Women in Science and Engineering: Increasing Their Numbers in the 1990s: A Statement on Policy and Strategy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1878.
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Suggested Citation:"3. Effectiveness of Intervention Models." National Research Council. 1991. Women in Science and Engineering: Increasing Their Numbers in the 1990s: A Statement on Policy and Strategy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1878.
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Suggested Citation:"3. Effectiveness of Intervention Models." National Research Council. 1991. Women in Science and Engineering: Increasing Their Numbers in the 1990s: A Statement on Policy and Strategy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1878.
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Suggested Citation:"3. Effectiveness of Intervention Models." National Research Council. 1991. Women in Science and Engineering: Increasing Their Numbers in the 1990s: A Statement on Policy and Strategy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1878.
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Suggested Citation:"3. Effectiveness of Intervention Models." National Research Council. 1991. Women in Science and Engineering: Increasing Their Numbers in the 1990s: A Statement on Policy and Strategy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1878.
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Suggested Citation:"3. Effectiveness of Intervention Models." National Research Council. 1991. Women in Science and Engineering: Increasing Their Numbers in the 1990s: A Statement on Policy and Strategy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1878.
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Suggested Citation:"3. Effectiveness of Intervention Models." National Research Council. 1991. Women in Science and Engineering: Increasing Their Numbers in the 1990s: A Statement on Policy and Strategy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1878.
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Women in Science and Engineering: Increasing Their Numbers in the 1990s: A Statement on Policy and Strategy Get This Book
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From time to time, it is necessary to alert the research and policy communities to opportunities for action in areas of mutual concern. One such area is the participation and utilization of women in science and engineering in the United States.

This book explores the underparticipation of women in these fields and presents a strategic plan to bring qualified women into such careers as researchers, teachers, and practitioners of science and engineering.

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