Issues for Ethnic Minorities and Women in Science and Engineering

last update 14 Mar 2006

Reading Assignments

• Ambrose, S.A., Dunkle, K.L., Lazarus, B.B., Nair, I., & Harkus, D.A. (1997). Journeys of Women in Science and Engineering No Universal Constants. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.  Introductory Chapter:  pp. 1-31 
• Campbell, G., Denes R., and Morrison, C. Access Denied:  Race, Ethnicity and the Scientific Enterprise.  Introductory Chapters pp. 7-46.
• Rossiter, M. W. (1995),  Women Scientists in America.  Volume 2:  Before Affirmative Action 1940-1972.  Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press.  Chapter 16: The Path to Liberation:  Consciousness Raised, Legislation Enacted, pp. 361-382.
• Pearson, Jr. Willie (2005)  "The African American presence in the American chemistry community: A brief history"
  Ch. 1 (pp. 1-29) in  Beyond small numbers: Voices of African American PhD Chemists (Amsterdam: Elsevier).

• The statistics compilations presented in class came from the National Science Foundation web site, http://www.nsf.gov/statistics.
  A selection of the data is available as either powerpoint or 4-per-page printout in pdf format.
  

• Use the MacLachlan article as the frame to think about the six individual narratives that follow.  What issues does MacLachlan identify?  Are these evident in the lives ofAustin, Cobb, Jackson & Villa-Komaroff?  In the stories of Hammonds or Gamble?  Are there issues (positive or negative) present in the women's lives that are/ are not mentioned by MacLachlan?  What does that tell us about different methods of data collection?  Based on the data presented by these readings, are there any assertions you would feel comfortable making about the lives of women in science?
  
  Finally, have you seen evidence of any of these issues in your own experiences in science education?  Or scientific/engineering work?

• On the course links site are assorted web compilations of biographies of women and minority scientists and engineers.  Browse through them if you have time.  One of the best is that on 20th Century Women in Physics.
  

• Article by Anne MacLachlan, "The lives and careers of minority women scientists," in the course pack reader.  Published in "Making Strides", newsletter for Directorate for Education and Human Resources Programs, AAAS, 3(3), 1-5 (2001).
• If you didn't already read this -- "A Lab of Her Own", Scientific American (1993).
  
• "An Interview with Evelynn Hammonds," by Aimee Sands, in The Racial Economy of Science (1993), pp. 239-248.  Available through ebooks via the UW library (take this link, click on "view this ebook" and type 239 into the page selection). (also copied here in the passworded file).
• "Subcutaneous Scars," by Vanessa Northington Gamble, in Health Affairs 19(1), 164-169 (2000).  Available on line through the UW library as html or pdf.
  
• Biographies of W. Lena Austin, Jewel Pummer Cobb, Shirley Ann Jackson, Lydia Villa-Komaroff, and Lillian Wu from Journeys of Women in Science and Engineering No Universal Constants. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
• 
  

• Browse Donna Nelson's Diversity Surveys, comparing faculty and Ph.D. diversity at the top 50 institutions in math, computer science, electrical engineering, physics, chemistry, civil engineering, mechanical engineering, chemical engineering.  Choose one field to examine in detail.  Make sure you look at the "utilization tables" that also list the number of female department chairs at the top 50 departments (note all the zeros!).  Think about what conclusions you may draw.
  
• Scan through the AAUP report on gender in academia AAUP Report on Gender Disparity in Academe.  Other interesting reports on women in academia compiled by the AAUP are listed here.

• copies of the viewgraphs used in class, which summarize results from Nelson, give tables from the AAUP report, and assorted tables from the Gender Differences in Salary chapter of J. Scott Long's book  "From Scarcity to Visibility: Gender Differences in the Careers of Doctoral Scientists"
• Nelson/Long graphs
  
• AAUP tables
• references to articles that came up in class:
• study on orchestral tryouts
  Orchestrating Impartiality: The Impact of "Blind" Auditions on Female Musicians
  Claudia Goldin and Cecelia Rouse
  The American Economic Review 90, 715 (2000)
  link to html through UW subscription
• Swedish Postdoc Study
  "Nepotism and sexism in peer-review"
  Christine Wennerås and Agnes Wold
  Nature 387, 341 (1997)
  link to pdf through UW subscription
• Author's name study in the 1980's
  "MCKAY,JOAN VERSUS MCKAY,JOHN - DO GENDER STEREOTYPES BIAS EVALUATIONS"
  SWIM J, BORGIDA E, MARUYAMA G, MYERS DG
  PSYCHOLOGICAL BULLETIN 105 (3): 409-429 MAY 1989
  link through UW subscription

For Jan 17:  Sheila Edwards-Lange.  Current status of women in UW Science and Engineering

• Read through the original ADVANCE proposal to the NSF and browse the ADVANCE website.
  
• Browse the UW Equal Opportunity Office web site.  In particular, check out the reports near the bottom of the page that show the numbers of female and minority faculty in various UW departments and a comparison to the available pool.
• Browse Assorted Statistics about the University of Washington.  Look for data related to minorities and women in science and engineering. Determine what additional information is required to draw conclusions based on this data

• Browse the National Center for Education Statistics with emphasis on minorities in high school and university.  For example, the race-disaggregated data from the Science Report Card.
  
• Preface and Chapter 3 from The Shape of the River by Bowen and Bok (1998) copied here in the passworded file. While reading the preface and chapter 3 may be useful, pay particular attention to the section on "Academic Underperformance" (pg 72-86).
• Also relevant are the readings on minority women from January 10, including the Article by Anne MacLachlan, "The lives and careers of minority women scientists," in the course pack reader.  Published in "Making Strides", newsletter for Directorate for Education and Human Resources Programs, AAAS, 3(3), 1-5 (2001).

• Electronic version of the handout from class is here.  Most of the tables and graphs are taken from (or deduced from data in) the NCES publication, "The Condition of Education 2002"
  

• Main readings.  Here look for specifics of UW and putting the historical record here in context with that at large.
  
• "The feminist and the scientist: One and the same" by Angela Ginorio, Terry Marshall, and Lisa Breckenridge here in a passworded file.  Note: Prof. Ginorio was one of the authors of this study and Prof. Olmstead one of the interviewees.
• You many wish to look again at the UW Equal Opportunity Office web site.  Data on gender and racial distributions for faculty of various ranks, plus staff, for the past 8 years are available here.  The UW Factbook gives student-centered data -- the population the faculty and staff are serving.
• Pick one of the following to read through for info on the national level:
• The American Institute of Physics Women in Physics 2005 report
• "Promoting the Advancement of Minority Women Faculty in Academic Medicine:  The national centers of excellence in women's health," E. Wong et al, Journal of Women's Health and Gender-based Medicine 10(6), 541-550 (2001).  Available on line as a pdf file through the UW library (UW restricted access).
• Read the Executive Summary to "From Scarcity to Visibility: Gender Differences in the Careers of Doctoral Scientists," by J. Scott Long, and scan one other chapter of interest from chapters 3-7:  Entry into Science, Labor Force Participation, Sector of Employment and Work Activity, The Academic Career, and Gender Differences in Salary
• National reports to browse:
  
• The NSF Women, Minorities and People with Disabilities in Science and Engineering 2004  Report
• NSF's Science and Engineering Indicators 2004, in particular Chapter 5 on Academic R&D.
  

•   For January 26:  Changes in a Lifetime (Irene Peden).

• Dr. Peden was the first (and for a long time the only) female Professor of Engineering at the University of Washington, having joined UW in 1962.   Note from the statistics we reviewed the first week -- 1966 is the earliest year the NSF publishes statistics for the number of female Ph.D.'s in engineering -- 8 in the entire US.  Rossiter (Vol 2, p. 55) quotes a statistic of 145 female bachelor's degrees in engineering in 1959-60 and 25 female Ph.D.'s from 1948 through 1960 -- that is TOTAL, not each year (Vol 2., p. 80).  Dr. Peden's bio is here.
• Recommended by Dr. Peden:
  
• An article written by Dr. Peden on the status of women in her subfield of engineering:
  "Thoughts on a Committee on Women in Antennas and Propagation," I. C. Peden, Antennas and Propagation Magazine, IEEE, Volume 45,  Issue 1,  Feb. 2003 Page(s):188 - 190.
  Link to UW online subscription.
• A one-page editorial on women in physics:  “Physics: For Women, the Last Frontier,” S.Tobias, M.Urry, and A.Venakatesn, Science, vol. 296, pp. 1201, May 17, 2002.
  Link to UW online subscription.
  
•  Browse the 1999 MIT Report on the status of women in the sciences at MIT (or its update in 2002)  and the 2002 MIT School of Engineering report.  Read the intro and recommendations.  This will also be part of the reading for Jan 31 class.
  
• Other background reading:
  
• "Faculty at Major Universities: The Antinepotism Rules and the Grateful Few" from Maragaret W. Rossiter's Women Scientists in America: Before Affirmative Action 1940-1972. Available here as a passworded file.
• A poem written in honor of Dr. Peden's retirement, and published in the IEEE journal in her subfield
  Poet's Corner to Irene Peden on her Retirement
  Felsen, L.; Antennas and Propagation Magazine, IEEE; Volume 37,  Issue 5,  Oct. 1995 Page(s):92
  link to UW subscription.
  
  

For January 31:  Introduction to Climate and how to measure it

• Read the Executive Summary of the UW Leadership, Community and Values Survey.
• Read through Harvard President Lawrence Summers address of 2005, and browse through the publicity it generated.  A nice compilation of links is on the  Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison Women in Science and Engineering Leadership Institute web page.
• Read the short article "Louts in the Lab" about Duke University Physics in the  January 23 Chronicle of Higher Education and the followup online discussion forum with Judy Franz, executive officer of the American Physical Society.
• A link on the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine website to numerous gender studies on faculty at Research 1 Institutions may be found here.
• An interesting snapshot of climate may be found in the reaction to the Chronicle article Princeton's announcement that time off the tenure clock will be automatic when an assistant professor has a child, rather than something that must be requested.  Read the article AND the responses it generated.
• Browse the UW Diversity Appraisal -- Typical departmental reports are only 1-2 pages -- pick a couple to read, including at least one in science and/or engineering.
• Check the links page for suggestions and pick the program on which you will write your intervention program report.
• some examples:
• 
  
• UW ADVANCE web site, 
• Center for Workforce Development web site, including the program for Women in Science and Engineering
  
• School of Medicine Office of Multicultural Affairs web site.
  
•  UW Office of Minority Affairs, 
  
• MESA (Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement), 
• GO-MAP (Graduate Opportunities & Minority Achievement Program), 
• SCORE (Student and Community Relations Engineering Advising & Student Center), 
• MSEP (Minority Students in Engineering Program),
  
•  Diversity in Computer Science and Engineering,
•  Rural Girls in Science,
• UW's website for K-12 outreach
  
• Search the web for others!!

• Panel of UW Program Directors for various intervention programs:
• Janice De Cosmo, Director of the NASA Spacegrant Consortium
  
• Victoria Gardner, Associate Director, UWSOM Office of Multicultural Affairs
• Carmen Sidbury, College of Engineering Diversity Director (COE Diversity home page)
  

• Read the WEPAN PILOT CLIMATE SURVEY:  Exploring the Environment for Undergraduate Engineering Students by Suzanne Brainard, Susan Staffin Metz, and Gerald M. Gillmore, available here on the web.
• Read "The Loss of Women from Science, Mathematics and Engineering Undergraduate Majors: An Explanatory Account," Science Education, V79, 437-473 (1995).  pdf file  The article is based on the book "Talking about leaving : why undergraduates leave the sciences", by Elaine Seymour and Nancy M. Hewitt. (LC148.2 .S49 1997).
• If you didn't get to it for Tuesday,
  
• Browse the UW Diversity Appraisal -- Typical departmental reports are only 1-2 pages -- pick a couple to read, including at least one in science and/or engineering.
  
•  
  

• Click here for abstract and reading materials.
• Copies of slides available here as a 4 slide/page pdf file.
  

• Click here for abstract and reading materials.
• Copies of slides available as a 4 slide/page pdf file either in original color (800 kb) or black and white (400 kb).
  

• For February 9:  Climate for Minorities and Impact of administrative interventions:  Guest: Warren Buck

• Reading:
• Familiarize yourself with the NSF CREST (Centers for Research Excellence in Science and Technology) program.  Solicitation for this year's proposals is here.
• Familiarize yourself with the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (AMP).  Home page.
  

• Browse the GAO study on women and minorities at the 6 big Department of Energy National Laboratories.  Read the press release, and then look at the pdf of the actual report reachable from the bottom of the page.
  
• Read one or two of the bi-annual reports of the Committee on Equal Opportunities in Science and Engineering. Think about which issues are most important, how they would tackle these issues, and the advantages and challenges of independent advisory groups consisting of volunteers who serve 3 year terms.
• Look at this report from the International Conference on Women in Physics, particularly the survey report and the breakout summaries, and think about the similarities and differences around the world and the potential applicability in the US and to minorities.
• 
  
• Browse the American Physical Society Dual -Science-Career-Couples report, reading the introduction and recommendations.
• Browse the web sites listed on the course-links page under professional organizations.
  

• Science Article (Jan 11 2002; vol 295 p. 278) on European Strategies for Promoting Women in Science by N. Dewandre
• The Scientist (Oct. 1 2001, vol 15(19), p. 31, 32) has two articles on foreign postdocs in the US. you will need to enter an email address to access on line.
• Managing the Scientific Multitudes by Paula Park.  Also look at the (non-scientific) survey results on which the article is based.
• Strangers in a Strange Land, by Brendan Maher.
• Science Article (Jan 11 2002; vol 295 p. 263) on China Debates Big drop in Women Physics Majors (news focus article by Yang Jianxiang).  (need UW computer for link to Science on line)
• Nature Article (October 2000) on Japanese Court Backs Woman Researcher
• Nature Article (March 2001) on Climate for Women Scientists in Japan, One Woman is Enough ...
• More on women in Japan.  Unequal Opportunity
  

• Click here for abstract and reading materials.
• Copies of the slides, as a 4 slide/page pdf file are available, both as original blue background/white letters, and a black-on-white version for easier printing.
  

• Read the 1992 Baltimore Charter and the browse the web sites of the associated 1992 and 2003 Women in Astronomy Meetings
• Read Meg Urry's article "The Baltimore Charter and Women in Astronomy" in the June 1999 AAS Status
• Read the article "Status of Women in Astronomy" by Meg Urry and Patricia Knezak in the October 2003 AAS Newsletter

• Link added after class:  The CSWA Equity Report from the 2003 meeting of Women in Astronomy is available through the CSWA web site.
• Old copies of Status may be reached there, as well.
  

•   For February 23:  Congressional Reports

• CAWMSET report, the Commission on the Advancement of Women and Minorities in Science, Engineering and Technology (also known as the Morella Commission)
• BEST report:  equivalent study, but with emphasis on minorities.
  

For February 28: 

• Click here for abstract and reading materials.
• Copy of presentation as a 4 slide/page pdf file:  color (14.5 MB) or black and white (1.9 MB)
  

• Click here for abstract and reading materials.

•   For March 2:  Academic Policy and its Influence on Climate:  Guest:  Maresi Narad

Readings suggested by speaker:

• Read the Executive Summary (pdf file) of the American Council on Education project
  Creating Options: Models for Flexible Faculty Career Pathways
  The Press Release is a good summary of the policy proposals.
  

• Reading suggested by speaker

• Read through the original Title IX to see what was important then (as opposed to the present fixation on athletics). 
  

• Additional Reading
• US Government Accountability Office 2004 report:  GENDER ISSUES:  Women’s Participation in the Sciences Has Increased, but Agencies Need to Do More to Ensure Compliance with Title IX  Go here to find links to both pdf and html versions.
  

read each others' policy memo drafts.

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