[582] in magellan
9 Research Universities Pledge to Treat Female Scientists Better
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Greg Anderson)
Wed Jan 31 08:38:41 2001
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Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2001 08:40:32 -0500
From: Greg Anderson <ganderso@MIT.EDU>
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This article is from The Chronicle of Higher Education
(http://chronicle.com)
An MIT lead effort.
Greg
_________________________________________________________________
Wednesday, January 31, 2001
9 Research Universities Pledge to Treat Female Scientists
Better
By ANA MARIE COX
Leaders of nine top research universities signed a pledge
Monday to work toward better treatment of female faculty
members in science and engineering and to consider
"potentially significant" changes in university policies to
promote equity. The pledge followed a meeting at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology between the leaders of
the universities and 25 female professors.
The conference was held at the invitation of three M.I.T.
faculty members who led a 1999 internal study of bias at the
university -- Nancy Hopkins, Lotte Bailyn, and Lorna Gibson
-- along with Charles M. Vest, the president of M.I.T. The
M.I.T. study, which led officials at the institute to
acknowledge that female faculty members had been mistreated
there for years, has prompted widespread discussion among
female scientists and engineers nationwide.
Presidents and provosts from the California Institute of
Technology, Harvard University, M.I.T., Princeton University,
Stanford University, the University of California at Berkeley,
the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, the University of
Pennsylvania, and Yale University attended. Representatives
from the American Association for the Advancement of Science
and the Ford Foundation, which sponsored the meeting, were
also there.
Ms. Hopkins said that the agreement of administrators that
gender discrimination does exist differentiated this meeting
from previous attempts to call attention to the issue. "There
have been hundreds of reports just like M.I.T.'s, collecting
dust," said Ms. Hopkins, "When the president says 'it's true,'
then it's true." Of the group's willingness to discuss the
topic, she said, "I thought it was a milestone that never
could happen in my lifetime."
The group's closing statement said that barriers "still exist
to the full participation of women in science and
engineering," and went on to pinpoint three goals to work
toward:
"A faculty whose diversity reflects that of the students we
educate"
"Equity for, and full participation by, women faculty"
"A profession, and institutions, in which individuals with
family responsibilities are not disadvantaged"
The statement went on to say that the goals the group has set
for itself "will require significant review of, and
potentially significant change in, the procedures within each
university, and the scientific and engineering establishment
as a whole." The group agreed to meet in about a year to share
the specific plans made to achieve their goals.
The female scientists at the meeting expressed full support
for the conference's outcome. Barbara Grosz, a professor of
computer science at Harvard, called the meeting
"extraordinary" and complimented the group's ability to
recognize that "the issue wasn't simple numbers, but a whole
complexity of factors."
M.I.T.'s Mr. Vest agreed, saying that statistics and
individual accounts were both necessary to understand gender
discrimination: "Clearly, you need both."
Gladys Brown, interim director of the Office of Women in
Higher Education at the American Council on Education, did not
attend the meeting, but in commenting on the group's
announcement, she echoed Mr. Vest's statement. She said that
the group's statement seemed to focus on "structural
components, but you're also talking about the quality of work
life."
Ms. Brown was generally pleased with the results of the M.I.T.
meeting, saying, "It is a tremendous effort." But, she said,
"We need to make sure there is an assessment and evaluation
component, and accountability." Mere goals don't do enough,
according to Ms. Brown. "The general consensus is that 'We'll
focus on these items,'" but, she added, "We need to make sure
that each campus is making the kind of strides it is committed
to, but we also need to hold individuals accountable. That
means providing rewards for those who have achieved these
goals, and -- let's just say 'disincentives' for those who do
not measure up." Then, said Ms. Brown, "You have a plan,
rather than an acknowledgment of the issue and the intent."
_________________________________________________________________
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Copyright 2001 by The Chronicle of Higher Education
