Page 12 - UD Research Magazine Vol5-No2

UD BY THE NUMBERS
UD faculty positions held by women during 2014– 15 academic year.
Many will note that the quest for greater gender balance in the laboratory, the social sciences and the disciplines that fuel the so-called STEM fields—science, technology, engineering and mathemat- ics—is not a mission accomplished. But neither is it mission impossible.
Quite the contrary, says a $3.3 million, five-year transformation grant from the National Science Foundation, which expects that investment to produce sustainable dividends institution-wide. The money supports UD ADVANCE IT (Institutional Transformation), a proj-
ect designed to increase the number of women in faculty and leadership positions throughout the University, with special focus on STEM and social sciences.
A snapshot of University statistics points to long-standing deficits in the percentage of women faculty in STEM fields and leadership roles—gaps that are common across the nation and around the world. But the same data—explored over time—point to incremental gains here.
41%
Administrative
appointments 37.9% held by full-
time tenured/
tenure-track
women faculty.
Chairperson/
academic 34.5% center director
positions held
by women
faculty.
“I would go to meetings where I was the only woman there,” she said. “It didn’t take long, though, before that was forgotten.”
That’s not to say she didn’t see prob- lems—and address them. She often was in a unique position to do so, too, for though her career started in research it morphed into leadership roles, where she was able to facilitate the research of others.
She remembers when—as a dean—she discovered a problem facing a capable young researcher who was applying for pro- motion to associate professor with tenure.
“Just before she applied for promotion, she gave birth to twins,” Thoroughgood said. “One of her external reviewers ... was asked by the P and T Committee to write a letter of evaluation of the contributions of her research and scholarship to the field of oceanography. This reviewer wrote a glow- ing letter of support until the final para- graph. He concluded the letter by saying that since she was now a mother of twins, he did not see how she could be a good mother and keep up with her academic responsibilities, especially her research.
“I was furious when I read the letter—it was blatant sexism—so I called his dean and made him aware of the letter. This dean (from one of the oldest oceanography programs in the country) took appropriate
Behind the Lens
Senior photographer Kathy F. Atkinson (right) worked her magic in a special shoot for our “Women of Research” feature. All of the researchers were comfortable, accomplished and cooperative, she said—a trifecta professional shooters don’t always experience. But these women “really got into it,” said Atkinson, who has been on UD’s staff for 15 years. “And though they may not have known each other coming in, hopefully they left as friends.”
2014-15
SOURCE: UD Facts & Figures 2014-15
“It is changing.”
—Pamela Cook
Women held just 5 percent of UD’s engineering faculty positions in 2001, for example. By 2006, that percentage had increased to 13 percent. Nationally, during the same time frame, women inched ahead from 9 percent in 2001 to 11 percent in 2006. Last year at UD, meanwhile, the percentage was up to 17 percent, accord- ing to Pamela Cook, Unidel Professor of Mathematical Sciences and a principal investigator in UD’s ADVANCE work.
Cook is no stranger to such discrepan- cies. When she started at UCLA, she was the lone woman with 72 male colleagues. When she arrived at UD, she stepped into a department as the only woman among 37 male colleagues. But she later became the first female chair of a STEM depart- ment at UD.
“It is changing,” she said. “The Univer- sity has family-friendly policies now. But day-to-day life depends a lot on your chair.”
And on your approach, Carolyn Thoroughgood would say. Thoroughgood, professor in the School of Marine Science and Policy and chair of the board of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Association Coastal Ocean Observing System (MARACOOS), has preferred not to focus on signs of gender discrimination, though she has addressed it quite forcefully in the past.
DAVID BARCZAK
10 | UD RESEARCH