In her new book, “The Science Glass Ceiling” (Routledge, May 2004), Rosser identifies obstacles that prevent women engineers and scientists from advancing at educational institutions and cause them to be underrepresented among faculty.
Even though the number of women majoring in science and technology has increased since the 1960s, the percentage of those pursuing advanced degrees and moving into the academic community remains low. In fact, only 19.5 percent of science and engineering faculty at four-year colleges and universities are women, with 10.4 percent being full professors, according to a 2000 National Science Foundation (NSF) study. At large research institutions, the percentages are even smaller.
The findings informed Rosser's discussion at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in February 2004.
“These low numbers contribute to a variety of problems, such as the shortage of technical talent in the United States,” Rosser says. “The scarcity of women in engineering and science leads to isolation, lack of mentoring, performance stereotypes and difficulty in gaining credibility from male colleagues – which creates a self-perpetuating cycle.”
Rosser’s new book stems from research she began in 1998 with a simple survey she conducted while organizing a conference for Professional Opportunities for Women in Research and Education (POWRE), an NSF program that funded tenure-track women engineers and scientists at large universities.
Rosser contacted POWRE awardees from 1997, asking what significant issues they faced as women scientists and engineers. To her surprise, nearly 63 percent of respondents cited “balancing work with family responsibilities” as their biggest challenge.
photo by Nicole Cappello
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Sue Rosser, right, chats with Georgia Tech Provost Jean-Lou Chameau, center, and Gilles Andreani during the Sam Nunn Bank of America Policy Forum titled “Bio-Terrorism Preparedness: The Imperative for a Public-Private Partnership” in March 2004.
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During the next three years, she repeated the survey with POWRE awardees and found even greater consensus – 73 percent to 78 percent of respondents said balancing career and family was their major problem.
Family issues loom large because many women scientists and engineers postpone children, Rosser observes: “By the time a woman completes her doctoral degree and post-doc work, she is typically in her early 30s – an age where there is competition between the tenure clock and the biological clock.”
Because POWRE awards typically go to women at large research universities, Rosser wondered if similar problems exist at small liberal arts colleges, which have a reputation for being more “family friendly.”
With that in mind, Rosser surveyed winners of Clare Boothe Luce (CBL) Professorships, a program that provides funding primarily to assistant professors in engineering, science and mathematics at liberal arts colleges.
Seventy-five percent of CBL respondents cited “balancing family and work” as their number one problem, corroborating the results of the POWRE surveys.
The notion that small, private colleges provide more time and less pressure for women faculty than large research institutions was an illusion, Rosser discovered. “The pressures are just different,” she says.
Rosser’s book sheds light on specific issues that institutions must address to attract and retain women scientists and engineers. “Because the problem is systemic, solutions will vary from school to school,” Rosser says.
One encouraging initiative is NSF’s ADVANCE program, which replaced POWRE in 2001. Rather than providing money to individuals, ADVANCE funds institutions to develop model policies and practices that eliminate barriers faced by women faculty. Georgia Tech received a $3.7 million award from ADVANCE, and Rosser is on a task force to help administer those funds.
Contact Sue Rosser at 404-894-1728 or sue.rosser@iac.gatech.edu.
For more information, see
gtresearchnews.gatech.edu/newsrelease/roadblocks.htm.
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Last updated: July 7, 2004
