Women in science get a major boost from NSF, UW-Madison

With the help of the National Science Foundation, the UW–Madison will establish a “living laboratory” for gender equity in science with the establishment of a new institute to promote the advancement of women in science and engineering.

The institute, to be known as the Women in Science and Engineering Leadership Institute, will serve as a catalyst for initiatives intended to enhance the advancement of women in science and to measure the success of such efforts.

The new UW–Madison initiative, supported by a $3.75 million grant from NSF, is intended to help broaden representation of women in science at all levels, says Jo Handelsman, a UW–Madison professor of plant pathology and an institute co-founder.

“Although we’ve made strides to eliminate gender bias in the workplace, we are far from having a level playing field in science laboratories at universities,” Handelsman says. “Today, only 21 percent of UW–Madison faculty in science and engineering are women. We have a ways to go to achieve equity.”

The Wisconsin initiative is being supported by NSF’s ADVANCE program and is intended not only to increase representation of women in science, but to help them achieve a greater role in scientific leadership and enhance the culture of science as it affects women.

“There are major deficiencies in the U.S. work force in many fields of science and engineering, and NSF realizes that if we draw more women into these fields, we’ll begin to address some of these core issues,” says Molly Carnes, professor of medicine and a co-founder of WISELI.

“WISELI represents a major step toward improving the campus climate,” says Chancellor John Wiley. “With their grant, NSF turned to us for leadership on the issue of women in science. They know we can lead the campus, and the nation, in making a difference.”

UW–Madison was one of nine U.S. universities NSF selected from a pool of 76 applicants to undertake a national initiative aimed at improving the working environment for women scientists.

“UW-Madison has a history of improving conditions for women faculty, and staff,” Handelsman says. “We’ve made a difference, and that’s what convinces us that we can solve the problem.”

She says statistical evidence indicates that women scientists on the Madison campus are just as likely as men to receive tenure, and that there seems to be no overall difference in pay scales between men and women in science and engineering disciplines. Mentoring programs and gender equity pay exercises have corrected some of the glaring problems that were identified a decade ago, yet a general climate problem remains, according to Handelsman.

Carnes says that UW–Madison female faculty cite issues that are similar to those documented at other universities. For example, research has shown that women are at a disadvantage in evaluations of their work, and thus career success, through such seemingly innocuous things as speech patterns, eye contact, comfort levels and conflicting role expectations.

“Blatant gender bias sometimes occurs,” she says, “but often the problem is more subtle, one of an unwelcoming climate.”

She cites a gender climate survey conducted in the UW–Madison Medical School that suggested women were far more likely than men to acknowledge that they did not feel like welcomed or valued members of the academic community, and that they were aware of informal professional networks from which they were excluded.

Because many factors affect campus climate, no magic bullet to solve the problem exists, says Handelsman.

WISELI, which will be housed in the College of Engineering, will develop and introduce a series of diverse initiatives to address the climate issue from various perspectives. Subsequently, each initiative will be studied to assess its impact on women, men and the institution.

Among its planned initiatives, the institute will:

• Examine issues of resource distribution as they relate to gender on the Madison campus.
• Develop workshops on campus climate for department chairs.
• Provide leadership development for women academic staff scientists.
• Initiate programs in lab management on issues affecting women.
• Provide grants to help women manage junctures where career and family conflict.
• Develop national leadership programs for women faculty.
• Host a seminar series featuring outstanding women scientists.
• Create endowed professorships for women in science.

“The most important thing about the proposal is that it will allow us to evaluate the efficacy of existing programs,” says Linda Greene, an associate vice chancellor whose responsibilities include issues of gender equity and faculty development. “The results will help the University of Wisconsin–Madison develop new programs that will attract and retain women scientists.”