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Transforming the Academic Workplace: An Evaluation of the ADVANCE Program in Colleges of Engineering (2001 - 2008)

Abstract

For over two decades, the US government has supported gender equity programs in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines. In 2001, the National Science Foundation (NSF) initiated the ADVANCE Institutional Transformation (IT) program with the primary goal to increase the representation of women in STEM. Since 2001, 37 institutions of higher education have received the NSF ADVANCE IT awards, and 19 have completed their five-year projects. Using the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) data, we assess the changes in the representation of full-time tenure-track women faculty in engineering colleges. While earlier cross-institutional studies of the ADVANCE IT program focus only on ADVANCE institutions, we also compare engineering colleges at ADVANCE institutions to their university peers. Our analysis suggests that while the average gains in the percentage of full-time tenure-track engineering women faculty for Cohort 2 were almost twice the national average, the gains were uneven not only between the two cohorts, but also among the engineering colleges in each cohort. Similarly, the ADVANCE institutions showed an uneven performance when compared with their peers. We therefore raise important questions regarding how success is defined and conclude by highlighting the most interesting instances of successful and not so successful efforts along with the importance of conducting multi-level comparative analyses of ADVANCE and non-ADVANCE institutions.

Introduction

For over 20 years, the US government has invested in the development and implementation of gender equity programs in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). The economic, technological, social, and educational benefits of creating a more diverse science and engineering workforce provide the impetus behind the equity efforts in STEM disciplines.1 Integral to these efforts is the growth of the number of women obtaining STEM doctoral degrees and entering the academic workplace as faculty members. Although recent statistics indicate a substantive increase in the number of women receiving doctorates in STEM disciplines, the numbers of women STEM faculty fail to reflect this change.2

Using the metaphor of a leaky academic pipeline, social scientists observe disproportionate female attrition at critical pipeline points including receiving a Ph.D. degree, entering the assistant professor position, receiving tenure and promotion to associate rank, receiving promotion to full professor, and advancing into academic leadership positions.2 Among factors accounting for this phenomenon, researchers point to how both the recruitment and advancement of women faculty are affected by the issues of institutional climate, including a sense of isolation3, lack of role models4, and lack of women in key academic leadership positions.5 The traditional gender division of labor in the family and women’s caregiving responsibilities are also mentioned as important barriers to the advancement of women in STEM disciplines.6

Issues affecting women’s recruitment and progress through the academic pipeline are very similar across all STEM disciplines. However, women engineers face the unique challenge of the

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Zajicek, A. M., & Morimoto, S. A., & Rencis, J., & Hunt, V. H. (2010, June), Transforming The Academic Workplace: An Evaluation Of The Advance Program In Colleges Of Engineering (2001 2008) Paper presented at 2010 Annual Conference & Exposition, Louisville, Kentucky. 10.18260/1-2--15826