Spring/Summer 2004

BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS No Regrets Women Faculty of Color Institutional Transformation

Institutional Transformation Environments can help or hinder success of women in academia. by T.J. BECKER

FROM SCRUTINIZING evaluation policies to opening doors on insider knowledge, the Georgia Institute of Technology is making strides to address subtle inequities that can adversely affect women’s advancement in academia.

photo by Stanley Leary The National Science Foundation’s ADVANCE program granted $3.7 million to Georgia Tech to develop model policies and practices that eliminate barriers faced by women faculty. Professor Mary Frank Fox, shown here with students, is on a task force to help administer those funds.

“Environments do not necessarily operate uniformly or neutrally,” says Mary Frank Fox, NSF ADVANCE professor of sociology at Georgia Tech and co-director of its Center for the Study of Women, Science & Technology. “The same setting can be experienced differently by individuals or groups and be unevenly helpful in their success – something that is especially consequential in science and engineering.”

Launched by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 2001, ADVANCE is geared to increase women’s participation in academic science and engineering careers. Among 18 universities to win funding, Georgia Tech has received $3.7 million from NSF to develop policies and best practices that advance women faculty, and Fox serves as co-principal investigator on the project. She recently spoke about the project at the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s annual meeting.

One hallmark of Georgia Tech’s NSF ADVANCE program is its research-driven approach to institutional transformation, critical to determining how environments shape positive or negative outcomes. So Fox surveyed Georgia Tech faculty during the 2002-03 academic year to document their perceptions and experiences in four areas: research and teaching, work environments, evaluation processes, and family and household scenarios. Highlights were:

Men (30 percent) are more likely than women (13 percent) to speak to colleagues about their research on a daily basis.

Although a majority of faculty members have colleagues in their home units working on similar research, men report greater “willingness” of colleagues to collaborate with them.

Men are more likely to characterize their home units as “exciting” or “helpful.”

“The survey findings show areas in which women and men converge and diverge and areas in which they may experience the same work setting differently,” Fox explains. “This reflects the influence of institutional settings.”

And that can have important consequences. “Ease of collaboration is particularly important in science and engineering where work revolves around the cooperation of people in groups,” Fox adds. “Research is a social process of communication, interaction and exchange. These factors, in turn, influence productivity and success in science.”

To determine more specifics about how the academic environment can help women, Fox is following up with one-on-one interviews with survey participants. She’s also conducting a faculty survey at eight other academic institutions to see how experiences compare among faculty.

Another key aspect of women’s advancement in academia is equitable evaluations. So Georgia Tech’s NSF ADVANCE program has created a committee to study the institution’s policies and procedures for tenure and promotion.

The committee, chaired by Professor David McDowell, has also developed a Web-based tool for interactive learning, which contains a variety of case studies and an actual simulation. Aimed at two audiences, this instrument helps candidates prepare their records for evaluation. It also helps members of promotion and tenure committees understand how prejudices can creep into the review process.

Fox is one of four NSF ADVANCE professors at Georgia Tech who are spearheading different activities to support women’s advancement. The program sponsors discussions and sessions that address what Fox calls “tacit knowledge.” This informal knowledge, such as how to obtain grants, is available through networking, but not immediately known to all individuals in a given environment.

Fox is enthusiastic about NSF ADVANCE’s momentum at Georgia Tech. “Leadership must signal that equity is a priority, and we have that at Georgia Tech,” she says, noting that Provost Jean-Lou Chameau is principal investigator for the school’s ADVANCE program.

Contact Mary Frank Fox at 404-894-1818 or mary.fox@hts.gatech.edu.
For more information, see gtresearchnews.gatech.edu/newsrelease/advance.htm.

Contents    Research Horizons    GT Research News    GTRI    Georgia Tech

Send questions and comments regarding these pages to webadmin@edi.gatech.edu
Last updated: July 7, 2004