Report: Women in science see progress, but not enough

A recent National Academies of Science report illuminates issues female scientists and engineers face in universities across the nation, including UW–Madison.

“The news is both great and terrible at the same time,” says Jo Handelsman, professor of plant pathology and co-director of the Women in Science & Engineering Leadership Institute (WISELI).

Handelsman was a contributor to the report, titled “Beyond Bias and Barriers: Fulfilling the Potential of Women in Academic Science and Engineering.” It claims the United States is missing out on an important source of talent by not addressing the bias and barriers facing female scientists and engineers in academia.

According to “Bias and Barriers,” women constitute half of the total workforce in the United States and half of the degree recipients in a number of scientific fields, yet make up only one-fifth of the nation’s scientific and technical workers.

According to a 2005 WISELI study, women make up an average of 11.7 percent of the UW–Madison faculty in the physical sciences, mathematics and engineering. In the biological sciences, women make up 23 percent of the faculty. The social studies and humanities departments fare better, with women composing 38 and 42 percent of the faculty, respectively. Overall, the percentage of female faculty in all divisions has grown about 4 percent since 2000.

WISELI research director Jennifer Sheridan says the numbers are comparable to other large research institutions, with hiring practices and the number of tenured women faculty generally on par with other universities.

However, she says, the UW–Madison working climate for women faculty has improved and their job and career satisfaction has risen slightly in recent years.

Both Handelsman and Molly Carnes, co-director of WISELI and professor of women’s health research, agree that many of the problems facing female scientists and engineers at UW–Madison are the same ones women in academia struggle with nationwide. Specifically, WISELI’s leaders say work-environment climate, bias, unequal pay and discriminatory hiring practices are primary concerns.

Educating people about bias and issues related to the working climate is essential, Sheridan says. WISELI has run several workshops to that end, focused on improving climate issues within specific departments as well as increasing the diversity of faculty and staff hires.

The good news, Handelsman says, is that many UW–Madison departments are already working to overcome barriers to women. She cites plant pathology and medical microbiology as model departments, full of high-ranking female professors and researchers.

UW–Madison’s plan to close the wage gap between men and women is now a model that other campuses look to, Handelsman says. In 1992–93, an analysis of UW–Madison salaries demonstrated a pay gap between men and women not based on experience or rank. Soon after, under-compensated female faculty received appropriate raises. The university continues to investigate pay inequity on an individual basis today.

UW–Madison’s policies on child care and tenure are more progressive than those of other universities, but there is still plenty of room for improvement, Handelsman says.

Providing daycare and dedicated “lactation” rooms for breast pumping would help, Handelsman says. Extending the period during which a professor can receive tenure, she continues, would go a long way toward leveling the playing field.

“Getting tenure is hard enough, and putting together birth with tenure is nightmarish,” says Handelsman. “Taking care of a small child while you are working at a job that assumes you can spend over 60 hours a week working is very problematic for women, who much more often than male faculty also have a partner who works full-time.”

WISELI continues to monitor gender issues on campus and plans to release the results of a comprehensive faculty survey in early 2007, Sheridan notes. The data will help gauge the quality of work life for faculty and will also help determine WISELI’s impact on lessening gender inequalities on campus.