Women in Science and Engineering: Increasing Their Numbers in the 1990s A Statement on Policy and Strategy (1991) / Chapter Skim
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2. The Science and Engineering Education Infrastructure
2. The Science and Engineering Education Infrastructure
Pages 29-50
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While these issues are of interest to many other organizations, few of these other actors effectively link fundamental research with policy formulation. NRC and the broader Academy complex specialize in developing such linkages through its unique committee process.
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Forming the backbone of the formal S&E education infrastructure are (1) the institutions providing the education to potential scientists and engineers and (23 the policies and programs providing the financial assistance essential for acquiring that education.
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c~ o ~ o ~ - ~ At ;` ED Do D o Ct As Cal C)
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(Gordon, 1990; Table 9~. The near parity of black females with black males suggests that further study should be done to probe cultural and sociological reasons for this result.
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'e oo o oN of o oo o .
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Data from the Doctorate Records File indicate that efforts in this area dunog the 1985-1990 period were particularly successful at University of California-Berkeley, Cornell University, University of Michigan, University of California-Los Angeles, University of Illinois-Urbana/Champa~gn, and University of Wisconsin-Madison. Joining those institutions to form the top 10 baccalaureate institutions of women who received S&E Ph.D.s during 1985-1990 were Pennsylvania State University, Rutgers University, University of California-Davis, and the University of Pennsylvania.
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at i" o c~ o As .
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An increase in the probability that women students will receive financial support could yield significant increases in female participation in the undergraduate and graduate student segments of the pipeline (Coyle, 1986~. Research indicates that women who are offered financial aid at the beginning of their undergraduate education are more likely to continue their studies in the sciences and engineering (Rosenfeld and Hearn, 1982~.
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At: o cc o o c o o in a In o v)
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The shrinking availability of research funds accelerates this process, farther compromising the quality of the graduate experience. All graduate students are adversely affected, but women in graduate programs are especially impacted because of their traditional lack of assertiveness....
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(3) political science, international relations, and geography; and (4)
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* Includesanthropology,sociology,andlinguistics;economics,urban planning, and history of science; political science, international relations, and geography; and psychology.
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Research on retention of both men and women in undergraduate S&E programs indicates that effective programs include the following: orientation programs for freshmen, remedial courses, career seminars, educational and career counseling, peer tutoring, research opportunities, cooperative and summer job programs, campus chapters of professional organizations such as the Society of Women Engineers, recognition awards and events, and exit interviews with graduating seniors. Successful retention programs, such as Purdue University Women in Engineenag Program and the Women in Science Program of Rutgers University 42
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We Role of the Media In order to recruit male or female students into science and engineering, those fields must be perceived as positive career choices (MacCorquodale, 1984~. However, a number of recent studies in venous developed countries suggest that science and engineering, in general, have an "image problem.n When students and adults are asked about they image of scientists and engineers, not only are science and engineering strongly viewed as traditionally masculine fields of study, but ~ most cases scientists and engineers are pictured as ~mad" scientists and perpetrators of destruction (Kahle and Matyas, 1987~.
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However, there has been no systematic evaluation of programs and materials informing parents about the importance of science and mathematics education for their children, girls as well as boys, and guiding parents on how to assist their children in career choices in these areas. Role Models and Aferaors Research indicates that students, both male and female, are influenced by role models and faculty members (see, for instance, Nagy and Cunningham, 1990~.
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At present, however, female S&E faculty role models are most likely to be found among the untenured junior faculty and, therefore, are not generally available for significant tune commitments to recruiting and other activities involving greater interactions with students (Cheney, l990~. Recruitment of women students at a given institution would be enhanced by the presence of women faculty at all ranks, a signal to women students that they will be respected and treated fairly.
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In response, some institutions encourage women S&E faculty members to act as role models and mentors for undergraduate and graduate women in their departments (Malcom, 1983~. Institutions address this issue through formal programs that (1)
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For example, women who try to participate in classroom discussion are ignored or interrupted more frequently than men by both faculty and male students; their questions are more often treated as trivial by faculty, and they are frequent targets of Good-natured derogatory humor (Sandier, 1986; Mulaix, 1990~. Anecdotal evidence also indicates that faculty, teaching assistants, and graduate students from certain cultures are less accustomed to the presence of female students In the classroom and laboratory and may discriminate against women students either consciously or unconsciously.3 However, the 3 This issue was a topic of much discussion at the conference, Women in Science and Engineering: Changing Vision to Reality, of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, July 29-31, 1987, and at meetings of the National Research Council's Committee on the International Exchange and Movement of Engineers isee National Research Council, Foreign and Foreig~-Bom Engineers in the United States: Infusing Talent, Raising Issues, Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1988, and Engineenng Education and Practice in the United States, Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1985~.
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Besides programs mentioned earlier, these include data collection and analysis from each department on the participation and advancement of women at the undergraduate, graduate, and faculty levels. The campus climate for women is also enhanced by on-campus branches of professional societies—such as the Society of Physics Students, Chicanos in the Health Sciences, and the Society of Women Engineers that promote interactions between S&E professionals and students and shepherd women students into professional careers.
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educational programs that have been introduced formally over the years; examining data on science majors graduating from historically black undergraduate colleges and universities, to determine the effectiveness of HBCUs in preparing those graduates for S&E careers; specifying those features of effective programs developed in one institution that can be duplicated in another; collecting data in order to analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of college admissions policies in newly coeducational institutions, some of which are major sources of future S&E Ph.D.s and which may routinely establish quotas for admitting women and racial/ethnic minorities; studying the career differences of men and women S&E doctorates, by discipline, with reference to their education; developing techniques to disseminate information to academic administrators on the importance of role models and mentors in the undergraduate and graduate S&E infrastructure, pointing out institutional mechanisms that are effective in producing S&E doctorates; examining the incentives (financial support, etc.) available for potential S&E majors; conducting regional and/or national conferences on the effective partnerships in science and engineering between academe, industry, and government; and planning strategic "awareness" sessions for decision makers ~ the print and visual media in order to eradicate the negative image of · 1 ~ e ~ ~ science and engmeermg in society.
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