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Women in Science and Engineering

Up to Career Guide for Scientists
Associations for Women in S&E
History



Reproductive Success for Working Scientists
"Long ago, I found myself pregnant while working as a postdoc at a federal institute. I was blessed with what seemed like the ideal situation for a mammal who wanted to increase her Darwinian fitness while enhancing her chances for tenure. I would be able to give birth and raise the baby past that difficult first year before I had to throw myself into the academic job market in search of a faculty position. Perfect, I thought."
Women in Math Project
This web site is host to numerous links to information about publications, people, associations, opportunities, activities, and statistics relating to women in mathematics.
Women in Biology Internet Launch Page
Links to topics around the web relevant to women in biology at all stages, but especially focused on graduate, postdoctoral, and levels beyond. Includes history, organizations, career issues, and aspects of the chilly climate.
Academic Careers & Babies
Personal accounts of UC Davis women faculty.
How Women Make Science Work
by Kristen Philipkoski , Wired News, December 27, 2000. "In the world of science and engineering, the small percentage of female scientists reflects the hurdles woman encounter in those fields. Carol Kovac is a study in breaking through the stereotypes."
The Laws of Physics
The Chronicle, 11/11/2005. "As a postdoctoral researcher, Sherry M.J. Towers thought she had all the rights of a university employee. After a careful reading of her university's handbook, she calculated that she could take three months off after the birth of her second child, in 2003. But before her daughter was three weeks old, Ms. Towers was back in her research office — making presentations at meetings, consulting with a graduate student she supervised, and finishing a paper. Her infant daughter, still too young for a day-care center, sat stashed in a car seat under Ms. Towers's desk."
CRA Committee on the Status of Women in Computer Science and Engineering
Lots of links relevant to women in computer science and computer engineering. CRA also runs several programs of its own.
US Equal Employment Laws and Regulations
This page contains pointers to information about US federal equal employment laws and regulations which may be relevant to academics and researchers in computer science (or similar fields).
Stanford promises graduate student moms 12 weeks of paid maternity leave
"Stanford University on Thursday promised its women graduate students 12 weeks of paid maternity leave, a bold step aimed at attracting and retaining female intellectual talent. The policy -- believed to be the second of its kind among major U.S. universities -- also guarantees that new mothers can maintain full-time student status and eases their return to classwork, research, and teaching."
Barriers to Women in Academic Science and Engineering
In Willie Pearson Jr. and Irwin Fechter eds. Who Will Do Science? Educating the Next Generation, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994.
Accomplished Women
HHMI Bulletin, June 2002. "The climb to the top is not easy, but a new group of women is moving into the upper ranks of science. They urge young faculty to aim high--just brace for the inevitable obstacles."
The Reluctant Feminist
New York Times, April 8, 2001. "Two years ago, Dr. Hopkins led a knot of women professors who documented pervasive bias at M.I.T., prompting the university to admit it had unintentionally discriminated against female faculty members. The admission from such a prominent institution and its moves to correct inequities have resonated widely. There had been other reports at other universities, but this one looked beyond the numbers, to how women were treated."
Achieving Gender Equity in Science Classrooms: A Guide for Faculty
A handbook "compiled by women science students and science faculty and staff at NECUSE Colleges and based upon initial work by students at Brown University."
Managing Your Career Through a Pregnancy
ScienceCareers.org "Pregnancy poses challenges in a researcher's career. Terms of employment may be unclear. A laboratory environment can be treacherous. And the vocational nature of a research career means that pregnant women often feel uncomfortable about adapting their work to their pregnancy or making cover arrangements for when they are on maternity leave. Pregnant scientists may also find that the level of benefits and support they receive depends on the stage of their career and the sector they work in."
Does Science Promote Women?
Ginther and Kahn use data from the NSF's Survey of Doctorate Recipients (the SDR) to estimate the chances of obtaining a tenure track position and of subsequent promotions as a function of sex and other explanatory variables. Their findings, in a nutshell: 1) Overall, women are less likely to obtain tenure track positions in the sciences, 2) However, the gap is entirely explained (in a statistical sense) by marriage and children, 3) Furthermore, there is little sex-related difference in the likelihood promotion to tenure or full professor.
Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering
Many interesting links can be found at this site.
Expanding Your Horizons in Science and Mathematics Conferences & The Math/Science Network
The first Expanding Your Horizons (EYH) conference for 6th- 12th grade young women happened in 1976, since then over 550,000 young women have attended these popluar annual conferences held in over 100 sites throughout the USA. They have been encouraged to take more math classes in school and aspire to be a scientist or engineer. Our website describes the Network's history, current organization and lists all the current EYH sites.
Women in Science
"This article explores this fourth possible explanation for the dearth of women in science: They found better jobs."
Chilly Climate: Addressing the Climate for Women in Academia
"The ChillyClimate website has been developed by AWIS to serve as a guide for improving the academic environment for women in the sciences."
Exploring your future in math and science
The results of a class project in a women's studies course at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It contains advice for high school girls on careers in math and science.
Crashing the Top
by Ann Douglas, Salon Magazine, October 11, 1999. "Women at elite universities may have broken the ivory ceiling, but they're still battling old-fashioned discrimination."
From Scarcity to Visibility: Gender Differences in the Careers of Doctoral Scientists and Engineers
National Academy Press, 2001. "Although women have made important inroads in science and engineering since the early 1970s, their progress in these fields has stalled over the past several years. This study looks at women in science and engineering careers in the 1970s and 1980s, documenting differences in career outcomes between men and women and between women of different races and ethnic backgrounds."
Women and Computer Science
Many links about women in computer science can be found here.
The Experiences of Young Women in Science
Rachael Hawkins examines the experiences in women in science.
Asian Scientists Hit a Ceiling
by Kristen Philipkoski, Wired News, February 25, 2000. "Only six percent of all Asian Americans employed by universities hold faculty or administrative positions, a statistic far out of whack with their accomplishments."
Women and Mathematics
An informative site maintained by The Math Forum.
New Rights for Pregnant Grad Students
"The last few years have seen a burst of activity by colleges to help professors balance the responsibilities of life on the tenure track with the responsibilities of being a new parent. But what about graduate students who become parents? Many do — and must largely fend for themselves, negotiating leaves with their advisers and departments. That’s why experts are hailing a move just announced by Stanford University’s chemistry department to adopt a formal policy for graduate students who are pregnant."
Gender Differences in the Careers of Academic Scientists and Engineers
"We find evidence that female scientists and engineers are less successful than their male counterparts in traveling along the academic career path. Some of this disparity appears to be related to differences between the sexes in the influence of family characteristics. Typically, married women and women with children are less successful than men who are married and have children. Our estimates of gender differences in success rates are relatively insensitive to characteristics of academic employers and to primary work activity."
Is The Gender Gap In Unemployment Disappearing?
NSF Issue Brief 97-323. "This Issue Brief contrasts trends in the gender gap in unemployment among doctoral scientists and engineers with trends in the larger labor force and examines the question of whether marriage and children have different effects on unemployment among men and women."
Foundations Addressing Gender Gap in Science
by Paul Smaglik, The Scientist, November 24, 1997.
Fellowships and Scholarships for Women in Science and Engineering
A list of fellowships and scholarships compiled by Brown University's Women in Science and Engineering program.
How Large is the Gap in Salaries of Male and Female Engineers?
A multivariate analysis of salaries of male and female engineers shows that differences are almost totally explained by the number of years of experience.
Women's Wire
This site includes a listing of the 100 Best Companies for Women.
9 Universities Will Address Sex Inequities
New York Times, January 31, 2001. "Acknowledging that women face hurdles in the fields of science and engineering, the leaders of nine of the nation's top universities have vowed to work together and individually toward "equity and full participation" of their female faculty members." (Requires free registration)
Gender Differences in Major Federal External Grant Programs
An analysis by the RAND Corporation of gender differences in the federal grantmaking process. The study found no major differences for the NSF and the USDA. However, the NIH awarded smaller amounts of funding to women, particularly at the high end of the award spectrum.
Gender Equity Issues Affecting Senate Faculty at UCLA
Report of the Gender Equity Committee, October 10, 2000. Requires Adobe Acrobat.
Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering
National Science Foundation: "This site provides data on the participation of women, minorities, and persons with disabilities in science and engineering education and employment. The data are organized by topic and are presented in tables, graphics, and spreadsheets for downloading."
Study finds women scientists attracted to careers in industry over academia
Companies Can Do Better at Recruiting Women Scientists, CatalystWomen.org, June 19, 1999.
Faux Family Friendly?
"As colleges have adopted 'family friendly' tenure policies, many female academics have feared that using these benefits may not actually help them. Taking leaves or extending the tenure clock ends up being used against you by faculty members who don’t understand the need for such policies, they say, explaining their reluctance to take advantage of these benefits."
Postdocs - equal opportunities, Naturejobs 20th June 2002
An overview of several European postdoctoral fellowships for women returning to the scientific workforce after time off to raise a family.
Advancing Women
International Business & Career Network, Strategy, Employment For Women
Male Scientist Writes of Life as Female Scientist
"Neurobiologist Ben Barres has a unique perspective on former Harvard president Lawrence Summers's assertion that innate differences between the sexes might explain why many fewer women than men reach the highest echelons of science."
Negotiation Skills for Women in Science
"Economist Linda Babcock performed a comprehensive study of the starting salaries of students graduating from Carnegie Mellon University with master's degrees (2003). She found that students who had negotiated (most of them men) were able to increase their starting salaries by an average of 7.4% or $4,053 - almost the exact difference she found between men's and women's average starting pay. Through a series of similar experiments, Babcock found that in general, women tend to be less likely to initiate negotiations, more apprehensive about negotiating, and more pessimistic about their own worth."
Gender Bias in Academe
How pervasive is bias against female faculty members? A Chronicle of Higher Education colloquy.
Examine Your Hidden Biases
An eye-opening set of tests to assess unconscious biases. The gender bias test is particularly relevant for academics. (Requires Java)
Camille Paglia on why female grad students don't need mentors
Salon Magazine, Jan 27, 1999. "Female graduate students should steer clear of cozy relations with their academic advisors -- whether they are affectionate men or bitter women."
Biased science: There's less to MIT's report on sexism in the sciences than the media would have you know
by Camille Paglia, Salon, April 7, 1999. A skeptical take on the MIT gender bias case.
The Hypatia Institute
A website for gender equity in the physical sciences including hot links, news, career links, telementoring, and a virtual maze of science herstory.
Webgrrls
Online and offline networking and resources for women interested in learning about the Internet and exploring job opportunities in new media.
Helping Female Scientists Thrive
"The University of Maryland-Baltimore County has had a growing reputation over the last decade as one of the most successful institutions in the country at recruiting and graduating black students in the sciences. Through a combination of scholarship programs and mentoring, the university year after year places students in top Ph.D. programs at a time that many institutions struggle to identify and educate black science talent."
Europe attempts to promote women scientists - Naturejobs
Europe is pushing to get more women scientists into industry and academia, but can the commission legislate for gender equality? Sally Goodman investigates.
WWWWomen
The Premier Search Directory for Women Online
Femina
A search engine for women.
Sex and science
Salon.com, April 12, 2001. "Are women discriminated against in the lab? Or are gender imbalances due to intellectual differences?"
Women in Science: The Battle Moves to the Trenches
NY Times, December 19, 2006. "Since the 1970s, women have surged into science and engineering classes in larger and larger numbers, even at top-tier institutions like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where half the undergraduate science majors and more than a third of the engineering students are women. Half of the nation’s medical students are women, and for decades the numbers have been rising similarly in disciplines like biology and mathematics. Yet studies show that women in science still routinely receive less research support than their male colleagues, and they have not reached the top academic ranks in numbers anything like their growing presence would suggest."
Internet Resources for Women in the Sciences
A nice collection of internet resources for women, particularily those in computer science, but with connections to other information as well.
Science and the Gender Gap
Newsweek, September 25, 2006. "A generation ago, women physicists and chemists were rare in the lab, but their number is increasing every year."