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.
- Gender roles and not gender bias hold back women scientists: A comment interpreting this article to say “no bias”
- Catalyst report says executive gender gap remains: Canadian companies making slow progress in promoting women
- Taskforce for women’s business growth report: Calling the Canadian government to support Canadian women entrepreneurs
Industry
- Diekman et al, Seeking Congruity Between Goals and Roles: A New Look at Why Women Opt Out of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Careers (2010). Psychological Science.
- N. A. Fouad and R. Singh, Stemming the Tide: Why Women Leave Engineering (2011).
- Executive Summary
- Full report
- 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?” - Engineers Canada and Canadian Council of Technicians and Technologists’ Report Engineering and Labor Market Study Final Report (2009)
- Engineers Canada and Canadian Council of Technicians and Technologists’ Report Factors Shaping Attitudes Towards Mathematics, Science, Engineering and Technology Careers (2009)
- Engineers Canada and Canadian Council of Technicians and Technologists’ Report Achieving Diversity: Strategies That Work (2008)
- AAAS ‘Measuring Diversity’ Guide Measuring Diversity: An Evaluation Guide for STEM Graduate Program Leaders (2011)
- Harvard Business Review Research Report The Athena Factor: Reversing the Brain Drain in Science, Engineering, and Technology: (2008)
- American Association of University Women (AAUW) Report Why So Few? Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (2011)
- National Bureau of Economic Research Report Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (2011)
- Law Society of Upper Canada Retention of Women in Private Practice Working Group (2011)
- 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
Academe
- UBC Applied Science: Encouraging Diversity
- Gender Difference at Critical Transitions in the Careers of Science, Engineering, and Mathematics Faculty (2010), National Academies Press (free online)
- Harvard Task Force on Women Faculty Report (2005)
- Stanford Report on Women Faculty (2004)
- Princeton University Report of Task Force on Status of Women Faculty in Science and Engineering (2003)
- MIT Report “A Study of the Status of Women Faculty in Science at MIT” (1999 & 2002 Update)
- MIT Report from the School of Engineering (2002)
- University of Michigan Report of Assessing the Academic Work Environment for Women Scientists and Engineers (2002)
- University of Waterloo 2010 Vision Report (2010)
- University of Toronto Engineering Performance Indicators Report (2010)
- Universities Australia Universities Australia Strategy for Women: 2011-2014 (2010)
- Martin, Hebl and Madera (2010), “Gender and Letters of Recommendation for Academia: Agentic and Communal Differences,” American Psychological Association Journal of Applied Psychology.
- Gender and Letters of Recommendation for Academia: Agentic and Communal DifferencesSummary from http://www.physorg.com/print208513780.html
A review of 624 letters of recommendation for 194 applicants for eight junior faculty positions at a U.S. university found that letter writers conformed to traditional gender schemas when describing candidates. Female candidates were described in more communal (social or emotive) terms and male candidates in more agentic (active or assertive) terms. A further aspect of the study involved rating the strength of the letters, or the likelihood the candidate would be hired based on the letter. The research team removed names and personal pronouns from the letters and asked faculty members to evaluate them. The researchers controlled for such variables as the number of years candidates were in graduate school, the number papers they had published, the number of publications on which they were the lead author, the number of honors they received, the number of years of postdoctoral education, the position applied for and the number of courses taught. “We found that being communal is not valued in academia,” said Martin, the Elma Schneider Professor of Psychology at Rice. “The more communal characteristics mentioned, the lower the evaluation of the candidate.” - Tutorials on Gender Schema and Academic Careers: http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/gendertutorial/
Summary of Research on effects of Unconscious Bias on Academic Careers: Summary - University of Waterloo Reports:
- Report of the working group on women’s salary equity (pdf) – 2009
- Review of the Faculty Annual Performance Evaluation Process (pdf) – 2009
- Equity in Hiring Sub-committee: Report (pdf) – 2008
- Task Force on Female Faculty Recruitment: Report (pdf) – 2002
- UBC Faculty of Science 2007 study on workplace climate (surveys, report, executive summary) http://science.ubc.ca/faculty/diversity
- UBC Faculty of Science follow up report 2010 available at http://science.ubc.ca/sites/science.ubc.ca/files/faculty/UBCScience_EquDiv_2007to2010.pdf
- University of Toronto APSC Annual report including Diversity (Section 9) 2011, http://www.engineering.utoronto.ca/Assets/AppSci+Digital+Assets/pdf/Newsletter+PDFs/Annual+Report+2011+-+Full.pdf
- Study of Faculty Worklife at UW-Madison 2003-2010 There are many reports here (3 Waves of Study) http://wiseli.engr.wisc.edu/facworklife.php,
Chair Publications
- Perceptions and Experiences of the Workplace among Canadian Computer Science and Engineering Students – A Gender Analysis (Fender, Davidson, Vassileva, Ghazzali and Croft, 2011)
Statistics
- Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering, NSF Division of Science Resources Statistics and The Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (2011). http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/
This is a very well-organized report that provides easy-to-interpret statistical information on the participation of women and underrepresented minorities (URMs) in science and engineering. The report highlights 6 topical areas: enrollment, field of degree, employment status, occupation, academic employment, and persons with disabilities.
- “Women in Science and Engineering in Canada”, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (2010), http://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/_doc/Reports-Rapports/Women_Science_Engineering_e.pdf
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.
- “Canadian Engineers for Tomorrow: Trends in Engineering Enrolment and Degrees Awarded 2006 to 2010″, Engineers Canada (2011), http://www.engineerscanada.ca/files/w_report_enrolment_eng.pdf
Recommended Readings
Below is a list of recommended readings from Dr. Croft concerning women in engineering and science.
“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.
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