Features WOMEN IN SCIENCE
Women crack the academic glass ceiling Gender survey shows solid gains in overall percentage of female faculty at top chemistry departments LINDA WANG, C&EN WASHINGTON
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fforts to increase the representation of women among chemistry faculty at top Ph.D.-granting institutions appear to be paying off. The percentage of women holding faculty positions at the top 50 schools in terms of chemical R&D spending was 19.1% for the 2014–15 academic year, a more than 2% gain over the previous academic year, according to the latest survey conducted by the Open Chemistry Collaborative in Diversity Equity (OXIDE), a diversity equity initiative cofunded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Department of Energy. “We have been looking at such small incremental pushes in the past, and to see an almost 2% jump in the last year shows that there is something happening within this field,” says Dontarie M. Stallings, OXIDE’s
research and program manager. “There is recognition of what females bring to our chemistry field and to our community.” The data show that the largest gains for women were made at the associate professor
More online Find more data and compare the 2014–15 stats with those for 2012–13 at cenm.ag/oxide1213.
level, which jumped from 25.5% in 2013–14 to 29.7% in 2014–15. The percentages of female assistant professors and full professors at the top 50 departments grew slightly from 25.1% in 2013–14 to 26.1% in 2014–15, and from 13.3% in 2013–14 to 14.6% in 2014–15. Despite these gains, the percentage of women faculty still lags behind the number of women earning doctorates. According to NSF’s Survey of Earned Doctorates, the percentage of women earning doctorates in chemistry in 2014 was 38.2%. “The bottom line is that we want all of the talent we can get to be engaged in research, education, and training,” says Angela Wilson, director of NSF’s division of chemistry and a chemistry professor at Michigan State University. “Ensuring that women chemists are among a university’s faculty provides inherent role models, which help to encourage a broader talent base. Diversity provides perspectives that make science stronger.” OXIDE aims to broaden faculty diversity
Steady climb Women have gained in faculty ranks, with the greatest improvement at the associate professor level. Percentage of women chemistry professors, 2014–15 ASSISTANT
ASSOCIATE
FULL
ALL
26% 30% 15% 19% Up 1% from prior year
Up 4% from prior year
Up 2% from prior year
Up 2% from prior year
Top departments for female faculty, 2014–15 NUMBER OF WOMEN
PERCENTAGE OF WOMEN
Percent women chemistry professors 30 25
Rutgers U, New Brunswick Purdue U, West Lafayette Ohio State U (Columbus) California, U of, Los Angeles Utah, U of
16 13 13 11 9
Rutgers U, New Brunswick Purdue U, West Lafayette Wayne State U Colorado State U, Fort Collins Oklahoma, U of (Norman)
33% 30% 29% 28% 27%
20 15 10 5
Note: Tenured and tenure-track women chemistry faculty at the 50 schools identified by the National Science Foundation as having spent the most on chemistry research in fiscal 2014. Source: OXIDE survey
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C&EN | CEN.ACS.ORG | SEPTEMBER 12, 2016
◼ Assistant ◼ Associate ◼ Full ◼ All ranks
0 2001 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15
CREDIT: STONY BROOK MEDIA RELATIONS
Sampson, right, works with graduate students in her lab. in gender, race and ethnicity, disabilities, and sexual orientation. Every two years, OXIDE organizes a National Diversity Equity Workshop, where chairs of chemistry departments around the U.S. come together to discuss strategies to reduce barriers to diversity equity, such as implicit bias, and increase the representation of women and underrepresented minority faculty. Led by Rigoberto Hernandez, a chemistry professor at Johns Hopkins University, OXIDE is among the more recent efforts to track data on women and underrepresented minority faculty in the chemical sciences. It began collecting annual data on women in 2009 and on underrepresented minorities in 2011 (C&EN, May 18, 2015, page 37). C&EN alternates in the years it reports the gender and underrepresented minority survey data. Other efforts to compile data on women and underrepresented minority faculty were made by the ACS Women Chemists Committee in the 1970s and 80s, and later by the Nelson Diversity Surveys, conducted by Donna Nelson at the University of Oklahoma (C&EN, Jan. 4, page 2). In addition to OXIDE, other initiatives aimed at addressing the gender gap include the NSF ADVANCE grants to increase the participation and advancement of women in academic science and engineering careers, and COACh, a grassroots organization offering career building workshops and other programs to help women succeed. Christy Haynes, a chemistry professor at the University of Minnesota, says she has noticed in recent years more awareness among faculty about the potential for implicit bias, which is bias that can manifest itself subconsciously. “Five years ago, I don’t
think that was really the case,” she says. “I feel like we’ve moved beyond just the simple information stage, and are now trying to do some real solutions-based work.” In her own chemistry department, she has found a simple approach to encourage more hiring of women. “I haven’t been shy about going straight to my chair and saying I met this great person at a conference, I think we should try and move her here,” she says. “I’ve gotten traction on that more than once in this department. That’s certainly one way to move your numbers.” Nevertheless, the numbers of women faculty remain small, particularly at the full professor level. “If you just look at the numbers, we have a long way to go. If you look at individual success stories, I think there are a lot of people that are very successful that are women and underrepresented minorities,” says Kay Brummond, chair and professor of chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh. Two years ago, Brummond became the first female chair in the history of the department. She says part of the challenge involves changing the culture. “There have been times when our seminar slate has been almost entirely male,” Brummond says. “If you have no women on your seminar slate, it’s sending a message to students that only men have science worthy of presenting.” She says her department is working on making sure women have more representation on the seminar slates. Brummond’s own journey to becoming a chemistry professor started with a female chemistry professor she had as an undergraduate student. “It was the first time I had a faculty member that was a female in chemistry,” she says. “It dawned on me that
I could do that, and that I wanted to do that. Prior to seeing her, I had never imagined myself as a professor of chemistry.” The earlier that a female student receives the support she needs during her training, the more likely she is to consider a career in academia, Brummond says. “One of the key interventions that I think can be helpful is making sure that students complete their degrees on time,” she explains. “That’s one of the things that can impact women’s decisions to go into a postdoc. If they’re spending six or seven years getting their Ph.D., then doing a postdoc that can last anywhere from one to three years, a decision to go into academia can be difficult because of the ticking biological clock.” Nicole Sampson, chair of the chemistry department at Stony Brook University, theorizes that tight funding and increasing awareness about alternative careers is contributing to new graduates choosing careers outside of academia. “There has been a massive attempt to change the mindset that a Ph.D. is preparation for an academic job,” she says. “Since I’ve been chair, we’ve run several faculty searches, and I’ve been disappointed at the fraction of the pool that are women, and these are pools of 200 to 400 candidates.” On the other hand, more women are in faculty positions than ever before, Sampson says. “We’re just at the cusp of where women like myself who were hired 25 years ago now are becoming chairs of chemistry departments,” she notes. “The role models we present to our students now are much more diverse than they were 25 years ago.” To encourage retention of women and avoid the two-body career problem, SampSEPTEMBER 12, 2016 | CEN.ACS.ORG | C&EN
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Women in academia, 2014–15 Women held the greatest share of chemistry professorships at Rutgers University and Purdue University. ASSISTANT PROFESSOR INSTITUTION TOTAL WOMEN % Akron, U of 6 2 33 Arizona State U 8 0 0 Arizona, U of 7 3 43 Buffalo, U at 6 2 33 California Inst. of Tech. 4 0 0 California, U of, Berkeley 8 3 38 California, U of, Davis 4 0 0 California, U of, Irvine 6 2 33 California, U of, Los Angeles 6 2 33 California, U of, San Diego 9 1 11 California, U of, San Franciscoa na na na Chicago, U of 5 0 0 Colorado, U of, Boulder 7 2 29 Cornell U (Ithaca) 5 2 40 Emory U 6 2 33 Florida State U (Tallahassee)a na na na Florida, U of 4 1 25 Georgia Inst. of Tech. (Atlanta) 4 2 50 Harvard U 2 2 100 Illinois, U of, Urbana-Champaign 9 2 22 Indiana U, Bloomington 7 2 29 Johns Hopkins U 3 1 33 Kansas, U of 5 0 0 Massachusetts Inst. of Tech. 8 0 0 Massachusetts, U of, Amherst 5 2 40 Michigan, U of, Ann Arbor 9 4 44 Minnesota, U of, Twin Cities 6 2 33 North Carolina, U of, Chapel Hill 12 3 25 Northeastern U 1 0 0 Northwestern U 5 1 20 Notre Dame, U of 6 2 33 Ohio State U (Columbus) 11 3 27 Oregon, U ofb na na na Pennsylvania State U (Univ. Park) 5 1 20 Pittsburgh, U of, Pittsburgh 9 2 22 Princeton U 5 2 40 Purdue U, West Lafayette 8 4 50 Rice U 2 0 0 Rutgers U, New Brunswick 2 1 50 Southern California, U of 8 1 13 Southern Mississippi, U of 6 1 17 Stanford U 6 2 33 Stony Brook U 7 2 29 Texas A&M U, College Station 3 0 0 Texas, U of, Austin 5 1 20 Utah, U of 8 4 50 Vanderbilt U 2 1 50 Washington, U of, Seattle 11 1 9 Wisconsin, U of, Madison 7 2 29 Yale U 6 1 17 TOTAL
284
74
25
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR TOTAL WOMEN % 1 0 0 13 7 54 10 3 30 3 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 100 5 2 40 6 4 67 4 1 25 10 2 20 na na na 0 0 0 8 1 13 4 0 0 4 1 25 na na na 14 4 29 8 3 38 0 0 0 1 0 0 9 2 22 3 1 33 9 3 33 1 1 100 3 2 67 6 1 17 7 4 57 4 1 25 10 2 20 2 1 50 8 1 13 6 3 50 na na na 9 0 0 9 2 22 2 2 100 10 4 40 4 1 25 8 4 50 8 0 0 4 1 25 8 2 25 7 2 29 5 1 20 4 2 50 5 2 40 4 1 25 5 1 20 3 0 0 1 0 0 256
76
28
FULL PROFESSOR TOTAL WOMEN % 9 1 11 26 2 8 23 2 9 18 3 17 37 7 19 36 5 14 30 6 20 28 2 7 40 8 20 36 5 14 na na na 20 3 15 28 5 18 21 2 10 14 0 0 na na na 16 1 6 23 1 4 26 4 15 25 6 24 19 2 11 11 0 0 14 3 21 21 5 24 15 1 7 20 4 20 27 3 11 25 4 16 13 3 23 23 6 26 23 3 13 33 7 21 na na na 20 3 15 14 1 7 20 1 5 26 5 19 17 2 12 38 11 29 22 2 9 3 1 33 18 1 6 20 3 15 0 0 0 20 1 5 21 3 14 14 1 7 19 3 16 28 4 14 17 2 12 1,017
148
13
TOTAL 16 47 40 27 41 45 39 40 50 55 na 25 43 30 24 na 34 35 28 35 35 17 28 30 23 35 40 41 24 30 37 50 na 34 32 27 44 23 48 38 13 32 34 8 29 34 20 35 38 24
ALL FACULTY WOMEN 3 9 8 5 7 9 8 8 11 8 na 3 8 4 3 na 6 6 6 8 6 2 6 6 5 9 9 8 5 8 6 13 na 4 5 5 13 3 16 3 3 5 7 1 4 9 3 5 6 3
% 19 19 20 19 17 20 21 20 22 15 na 12 19 13 13 na 18 17 21 23 17 12 21 20 22 26 23 20 21 27 16 26 na 12 16 19 30 13 33 8 23 16 21 13 14 26 15 14 16 13
1,557
298
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Note: Tenured and tenure-track faculty at the 50 schools identified by the National Science Foundation as having spent the most on chemistry research in fiscal 2014. For schools whose NSF ranking is based on multiple campuses, faculty numbers are for campuses listed in parentheses. na = not available. a Did not reply to requests for information. b Declined to participate. Source: OXIDE survey
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C&EN | CEN.ACS.ORG | SEPTEMBER 12, 2016
CREDIT: JOSEPH L. KENT
son says her department just landing the job.” helps spouses of faculty Haynes says that real find jobs at the university. change happens when “The consequence of that the entire community is we actually have several invests in achieving married couples in the diversity equity. “It’s redepartment. That, I think, ally easy to say, come on has set the stage for the women, work harder to department being a welmake more changes. You coming place.” need to have everyone on In addition, each facboard. You really need to ulty member has three have the white men in the mentors to help them with room to also be interested various aspects of their cain diversifying, or else reer. “We’ve made a huge it doesn’t happen,” she investment in our faculty, says. “That’s something and we want them to sucOXIDE is working really ceed,” Sampson says. Brummond (right) with her research group at the University of Pittsburgh. hard to inspire. In bringAt the University of ing all the chairs together, Oklahoma, chemistry department chair en, and we kept calling on them to do a lot they’re trying to make sure that all the work Ron Halterman says that they’ve added of extra committee work,” he says. “You to increase diversity doesn’t land on the graduate student representation to their have to pick your investments of time.” people that are the diversity.” search committees. “Students are lookRecruiting more women and retaining The gains that women make will be felt ing more at the mentoring relationship them is only half the battle, says Andrew by all underrepresented groups. “People and they may not be quite so concerned Feig, a professor of chemistry at Wayne think that if you change the climate and with the metrics, like numbers of papers. State University. “We need to see them pro- make it better for women, that it only afThey’re more interested in whether this gressing into leadership roles, and we need fects women. No,” Stallings says. “Data has person can communicate clearly,” he says. to see that women faculty are winning nashown that if you change the climate and He cautions against overburdening tional awards, that they’re getting nominat- make it better for women, it makes it better women with service. “Until two or three ed at the appropriate rate, and that they’re for every single demographic within that years ago, we didn’t have very many womsuccessful in all aspects of their career, not department.” ◾
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