Below is a list of recommended readings from Dr. Croft concerning women in engineering and science.

Papers

Gender Roles

• Women, Work, and the academy: Summary paper from ADVANCE project in US which reviews the reasons for the disproportionately low number of women in academe in the US, and recommendations for addressing these issues.

Key words: gender, career, female

Alison Wylie, Janet R. Jakobsen, and Gisela Fosado (2007), “Women, Work and the Academy,” Barnard Center for Research on Women.

• A persistent problem. Traditional gender roles hold back female scientists. : An investigation into various aspects of how a scientist’s gender influences selection processes and careers.

Key words: gender, roles, scientists

Anna Ledin, Lutz Bornmann, Frank Gannon, and Gerlind Wallon (2007), “A persistent problem: Traditional gender roles hold back female scientists,” European Molecular Biology Organization.

• Action Strategies to Support Women’s Enterprise Development: a taskforce report identifying recommended action strategies that the Canadian government should take in order to support Canadian women entrepreneurs, increase productivity and facilitate women’s enterprise growth.

Key words: gender, career, female, support, entrepreneurs

“Action Strategies to Support Women’s Enterprise Development” The Canadian Taskforce for Women’s Bussiness Growth. (November 2011)

Industry

• Women: An Unmined Resource – A Report on Female Participation Within BC’s Mineral Exploration and Mining Industry: A study on the current state of female representation within the mineral exploration and mining industry in BC, and recommendations for increasing female participation in the Industry by focusing on the BC landscape in several ways.

Mining Association of BC Report “Women: An Unmined Resource – A Report on Female Participation Within BC’s Mineral Exploration and Mining Industry” (2011)

• Ramp Up: A Study on the Status of Women in Canada’s Mining and Exploration Sector: A study on the representation of women in mining in Canada, and the perspectives of female employees, employers, students and educators on working conditions, retention, work-life support, opportunities for advancement, school-to-work transition and degree of awareness

Women in Mining Canada Report “Ramp Up: A Study on the Status of Women in Canada’s Mining and Exploration Sector, Final Report” (2010)

• Seeking Congruity Between Goals and Roles: A New Look at Why Women Opt Out of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Careers: A report investigating that STEM careers are perceived to not fulfill communal goals, and that this perception contributes to underrepresentation of females in STEM.

Diekman et al (2010), “Seeking Congruity Between Goals and Roles: A New Look at Why Women Opt Out of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics,” Psychological Science.

• Stemming the Tide: Why Women Leave Engineering: A report investigating why women leave the engineering profession, never enter it after graduation, and what work decision women in engineering careers are currently making.

N. A. Fouad and R. Singh, “Stemming the Tide: Why Women Leave Engineering” (2011).

– Related Webinar series: WEPAN Webinar about this study

– National Society of Professional Engineers Article: “Heading for the Exit – The pool of women engineers has increased, but many of them are leaving the profession. Why?”:This also discusses why women are leaving the engineering profession.

• Not all automatic associations are created equal: How implicit normative evaluations are distinct from implicit attitudes and uniquely predict meaningful behaviour,:

Keywords: Cultural norm; Implicit process; Stereotyping and prejudice

Yoshida, E., Peach, J.M., Zanna, M.P. & Spencer, SJ. “Not all automatic associations are created equal: How implicit normative evaluations are distinct from implicit attitudes and uniquely predict meaningful behavior” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (2011). Doi: 10.1016/j.jesp.2011.09.013.

• Engineering and Labor Market Study Final Report: This is a report that includes 10 studies that looked at topics including diversity in the work place, changing roles within the engineering team.

Engineers Canada and Canadian Council of Technicians and Technologists’ Report “Engineering and Labor Market Study Final Report” (2009)

• Engineering and Labour Market Study 2007 Engineering and Technology Employer Survey: this report identifies employment patterns by technical field and by function, hiring intentions, recruitment channels and related issues, and policies regarding licensure and certification, continuing professional development, and the promotion of diversity in the engineering and technology labour force.

Engineers Canada and Canadian Council of Technicians and Technologists’ Report “2007 Engineering and Technology Employer Survey” (2007)

• Changing Roles in Engineering and Technology: A report that examines changes in the professional roles of engineers, technologists and technicians. The finding are based on five focus groups conducted with engineers and engineering technologists and technicians and on 41 executive interviews.
  

Engineers Canada and Canadian Council of Technicians and Technologists’ Engineering and Technology Labour Market Study “Changing Roles in Engineering and Technology”

• Factors Shaping Attitudes Towards Mathematics, Science, Engineering and Technology Careers: A study that investigates the motivation factors for young women’s educational and career choices.

Keywords: educational and career choices, motivation, mathematics, science

Engineers Canada and Canadian Council of Technicians and Technologists’ Report “Factors Shaping Attitudes Towards Mathematics, Science, Engineering and Technology Careers” (2009)

• Achieving Diversity: Strategies That Work: A report describing 10 initiatives that broaden career opportunities for targeted groups. The overriding conclusion that emerges from these case studies is that well focused programs work

Engineers Canada and Canadian Council of Technicians and Technologists’ “Report Achieving Diversity: Strategies That Work” (2008) .

• Measuring Diversity: An Evaluation Guide for STEM Graduate Program Leaders: A guide that offers a detailed framework for evaluating graduate level programs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, along with practical tools that focus on key areas of evaluation.

AAAS ‘Measuring Diversity’ Guide “Measuring Diversity: An Evaluation Guide for STEM Graduate Program Leaders” (2011)

• The Athena Factor: Reversing the Brain Drain in Science, Engineering, and Technology: A study that looks at the career trajectories of women with SET credentials in the private sector. It found 5 powerful “antigens” in corporate cultures. Women in SET are marginalized by hostile macho cultures.

Harvard Business Review Research Report “The Athena Factor: Reversing the Brain Drain in Science, Engineering, and Technology” (2008)

• Why So Few? Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics: A report that presents in-depth yet accessible profiles of eight key research findings that point to environmental and social barriers – including stereotypes, gender bias and the climate of science and engineering departments in colleges and universities – that continue to block women’s participation and progress in science, technology, engineering, and math. The report also includes up to date statistics on girls’ and women’s achievement and participation in these areas and offers new ideas for what each of us can do to more fully open scientific and engineering fields to girls and women.

American Association of University Women (AAUW) Report “Why So Few? Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics” (2011)

• Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics: A comparison of the 1993 and 2003 National Surveys of College Graduates to examine the higher exit rate of women compared to men from science and engineering relative to other fields. It find that the higher relative exit rate is driven by engineering rather than science, and show that 60% of the gap can be explained by the relatively greater exit rate from engineering of women dissatisfied with pay and promotion opportunities.

National Bureau of Economic Research Report “Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics” (2011)

• Retention of Women in Private Practice Working Group:This report discusses the differences between the legal careers ofwomen and men and outlines business and social reasons for developing strategies to retain women in private practice. It also makes a series of recommendations to promote the advancement of women in the private practice of law.

Law Society of Upper Canada “Retention of Women in Private Practice Working Group” (2011)

• Increasing Women in SETT: The Business Case: This business case presents that women’s increased participation and advancement in the workforce bring significanteconomic benefits to organizations and to Canada. This compelling business case is articulated by industry and institutional leaders across all sectors and is supported by recent research findings. Enhancing the participation and leadership of women in science, engineering, trades and technology (SETT) fields will generate even greater positive impacts in our knowledge-based, technological and highly competitive global economy. The benefits of gender diversity are described in this review and are supported by direct economic indicators.

Canadian Coalition of Women in Engineering, Science, Trades and Technology (CCWESTT) Report “Increasing Women in SETT: The Business Case” (2011)

• Engineering Cultures Research Project Report: This research was undertaken to explore the experiences of men and women who were trained in engineering, with a focus on understanding what impacts retention within the profession and what it means to be successful in the profession. A factor that was expected to play a particularly important role was gender as engineering continues to be a “densely masculine” profession with only 12.2% of engineers in Canada in 2006 being women. Women have also been found to be more likely to leave the profession than male colleagues (Preston 2004; Ranson 2003). This numerical dominance of men has been seen to shape the “culture of engineering”, or the norms and values of how engineering should be undertaken.

Engineering Cultures “Engineering Cultures Research Project Report”

• APEGBC 2008 Report on Members Compensation and Benefits’: An annual report of data on member’s compensation and benefits for engineers and geoscientists in British Columbia.

APEGBC “2008 Report on Members on Members Compensation and Benefits'” (2008)

Academe

• Gender Difference at Critical Transitions in the Careers of Science, Engineering, and Mathematics Faculty: Presents new and surprising findings about career differences between female and male full-time, tenure-track, and tenured faculty in science, engineering, and mathematics at the nation’s top research universities.

Key words: gender, career, tenure, female, faculty, professor status, tenure-track, mentor

“Gender Differences at Critical Transitions in the Careers of Science, Engineering, and Mathematics Faculty.” The National Academies Press. 22 Mar. 2012.

• Harvard Task Force on Women Faculty Report: Task Force is formed to “develop concrete proposals to reduce barriers to the advancement of women faculty at Harvard”.

Key words: faculty, diverse, women, recruitment, climate, faculty development, promotion, tenure

“Report of the Task Force on Women Faculty.” Harvard Journal (2005): 1-58.

• Stanford Report on Women Faculty: An assessment on the University’s progress on the issues of gender equity in the academic workplace.

Key words: women, gender equity, diversity, faculty, affirmative action

“Report of the Provost’s Advisory Committee on the Status of Women Faculty”, Stanford University (2004)

• Task Force on Status of Women Faculty in Science and Engineering: Task Force in order to investigate the status of women faculty in the Natural Sciences and Engineering at Princeton. The Task Force was instructed to develop a long-term strategy to attract and retain highly talented women into Natural Science and Engineering Departments.

Key words: strategy, faculty, long-term solution, tenure, promotion, retention, recruitment, compensation

“Task Force on Status of Women Faculty in Science and Engineering”, Princeton University Report, 2003

• MIT Report “A Study of the Status of Women Faculty in Science at MIT”: The report shows an unequal distribution of resources between male and female faculty in every variable that was measured: lab space, salaries, proportion of funding from the Institute, and nominations for prizes.

Key words: marginalization, faculty, tenure, discrimination, equality

“A Study of the Status of Women Faculty in Science at MIT”, Report of the School of Science (2002 update, 1999 report)

• MIT Report from the School of Engineering: Reports of the Committees on the Status of Women Faculty,

Key words: gender diversity, women faculty, marginalization, tenure, promotion, gender bias, acadmic leadership, compensation

“Report of the School of Engineering”, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, March 2002

• Assessing the Academic Work Environment for Women Scientists and Engineers: The study compares women scientists and engineers with two other groups: men scientists and engineers and women social scientists. This allows them to assess whether differences are attributable to gender, or to factors more generally relevant to the science and engineering context.

Key words: recruiting, retaining, tenure, working environment, gender discrimination, mentoring, climate, tenure

“Assessing the Academic Work Environment for Women Scientists and Engineers”, NSF ADVANCE Project, Institute for Research on Women and Gender, University of Michigan (2002)

• Engineering Performance Indicators Report: The University of Toronto’s Comparisons and Ranking, Awards and Honors, Undergraduate Studies, Graduate Studies, Research, Cross-Faculty Education and Research, Advancement, Communications, Diversity, and Financial and Physical Resources.

Key words: diversity, comparisons, academic ranking, awards, undergraduates, graduate studies, research, cross-faculty education, advancement, communications

“Engineering Performance Indicators Report”, University of Toronto (2010)

• Universities Australia Strategy for Women: 2011-2014: Peak body representing the university sector – representing 39 universities in the public interest, both nationally and internationally.

Key words: policy, advocacy, promotion, development, international collaboration, internationalisation, purchasing arrangements

Universities Australia (2010)

• Gender and Letters of Recommendation for Academia: Agentic and Communal Differences: A review of recommendation letters for junior faculty positions at a U.S. university. The review found that letters for female candidates included more communal terms and male candidates’ letters used more assertive terms. A full summary can be found here.

Key words: women in academia, gender stereotypes, gender equity, letter of recommendation

Martin, Hebl and Madera (2010), “Gender and Letters of Recommendation for Academia: Agentic and Communal Differences,” American Psychological Association Journal of Applied Psychology.

• Summary of Research on effects of Unconscious Bias on Academic Careers:Evidence of Unconscious Bias in Academic Settings and other Research Findings.

Advance: At the Earth Institute at Columbia University

• Unconscious Bias in Faculty and Leadership Recruitment: A Literature Review: A review of the scientific literature on the theory of unconscious bias, explores the role of unconscious bias in job recruitment and evaluations, and offers suggestions for search committees and others involved in hiring decisions at medical schools and teaching hospitals.

Association of American Medical Colleges, ” Unconscious Bias in Faculty and Leaderhsip Recruitment: A Litature Review” Analysis in Brief Volume 9, Number 2 (August 2009)

• University of Waterloo Reports: Report of the working group on women’s salary equity (pdf): Investigates issues related to salary equity for female faculty at the University of Waterloo.

  Key words: salary equity, promotion, tenure

  “Report of the Working Group on Women’s Salary Equity”, University of Waterloo, Ontario, April 2009

• Review of the Faculty Annual Performance Evaluation Process (pdf) – Review of the existing processes and systems that comprise and support the annual faculty performance evaluation. Through this process they identified recurring themes and developed recommendations for making changes to address problematic areas.

Key words: faculty performance, evaluation, scholarship, teaching, stipend

“Review of the Faculty Annual Performance Evaluation Process”, Working Group on Faculty Annual Performance Evaluation—April, 2009

• Equity in Hiring Sub-committee: Report (pdf) – Statistics that indicate how well UW is doing in hiring equity compared to other, similar Universities and recommendations based on interview with members of UARC.

Key words: equity, female faculty, recruitment, inequity, mentoring

Leat, Susan; Burns, Catherine; Moffatt, Barb; Schryer, Catherine “Equity in Hiring Sub-Committee,” Report to FAUW Board, 2008

• Task Force on Female Faculty Recruitment: Report (pdf)

Key words:recruitment, female faculty, tenure, graduate students, climate, retention, mentoring, applicant pool

“Task Force on Female Faculty Recruitment”, Welcoming Women Faculty (2002) University of Waterloo

• Working Climate – Science Faculty: Study on workplace climate (surveys, report, executive summary)

Key words: diversity, equity, tenure, climate, mentoring

Peacock, Simon; “Working Climate – Science Faculty”, University of British Columbia, 2007

• Equity and Working Climate Initiatives and Outcomes Pertaining to Tenure-Track Faculty at UBC Science: 2007-2010

Condon, Hibsch-Jetter, Parrish, Peacock, “Equity and Working Climate Initiatives and Outcomes Pertaining to Tenure-Track Faculty at UBC Science: 2007-2010”, UBC Faculty of Science, 2010

• Gender Bias in Peer Review of Faculty: Points to consider when evaluating tenure and promotion cases and particularly letters of evaluation.

Simon Peacock and Anne Condon, “Gender Bias in Peer Review of Faculty, Notes for DACOPAT” (February 2009).

• University of Toronto APSC Annual report including Diversity (Section 9) 2011

Key words: undergraduate, graduate, awards, research, honours, diversity, ranking

“University of Toronto Engineering: Performance Indicators”, Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering, 2011

• Study of Faculty Worklife at UW-Madison: An extensive climate survey instrument based on the interview data from women faculty and staff in the STEM disciplines. There are many reports here (3 Waves of Study)

Key words: climate, tenure, faculty, worklife

Sheridan, Jennifer; “Study of Faculty Worklife at UW-Madison”, UW Madison, 2003 – 2010

• Survival Analysis of Faculty Retention in Science and Engineering by Gender: Individual assistant professors hired in science and engineering since 1990 at 14 US universities, were tracked from time of hire to time of departure by using publicly available catalogs and bulletins.

Key words: retention, female faculty, tenure, departure rates, promotion rates,

Kaminski, Geisler; “Survival Analysis of Faculty Retention in Science and Engineering by Gender” In Science Magazine, 2012

Statistics

• Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering Digest 2011: a report prersenting statistical information on the participation of women and underrepresented minorities (URMs) in science and engineering. It highlights 6 topical areas: enrollment, field of degree, employment status, occupation, academic employment, and persons with disabilities.

NSF Division of Science Resources Statistics and The Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (2011). “Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering Digest 2011″

• Women in Science and Engineering in Canada: Review of statistics relating to women in science and engineering in Canada with comparisons to international statistics. Includes a look at the supply side of women in the science and engineering stream, and the career outcomes for women in academe and research. The final section includes a brief review of the relevant literature and a summary of issues and possible solutions.

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (2010). “Women in Science and Engineering in Canada“

• Canadian Engineers for Tomorrow: Trends in Engineering Enrolment and Degrees Awarded 2006 to 2010: This report analyzes trends in engineering student enrolment within accredited engineering programs across the nation. Analysis of these trends enables comparison of enrollment patterns, assessment of the number of women pursuing engineering education, and exchanging of pertinent information with similar disciplines and institutions.

Engineers Canada (2011). “Canadian Engineers for Tomorrow: Trends in Engineering Enrolment and Degrees Awarded 2006 to 2010“

Books

“Why so slow? The advancement of women ” by Virginia Valian, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press. 1999 3rd Ed.

Women in the professions are more highly represented at lower-ranked than higher-ranked institutions, spend more time in rank than men do, and make less money. In addition, women at prominent research universities have lower ranks than do women at lower-ranked institutions (with the exception of biology). That such phenomena are widespread is documented in this book which reviews men’s and women’s status in the professions and academia. Recent data from the National Science Foundation (NSF), taken together with data from other studies and other disciplines, show (1) that there is a problem, (2) that the problem is now primarily found not at entry-level positions but at later points in people’s careers, and (3) that it is general across disciplines and professions—business, medicine, law, the humanities.

Angier, Natalie. “A Conversation: With Virginia Valian — Exploring the Gender Gap and the Absence of Equality.” The New York Times (New York), 25 Aug. 1998, F, 1, 4.

Notes: Conversation with Virginia Valian – part of national debate on gender in the university. Abstract: “VIRGINIA VALIAN, a professor of psychology and linguistics at Hunter College in New York, normally studies how children learn language, but years ago she came across an academic monograph that practically left her speechless. The report demonstrated how the same professional credentials are evaluated differently depending on whether they are possessed by a man or a woman — with the woman being the loser.”

Anderson, Maria W. “Report Details Glass Ceiling in Academia.” The Scientist 17, no. 23 (Dec. 2003): 49.

Notes: General report about institutional transformation efforts and the issue of women in STEM.