Biological, Social, and Organizational Components of Success for Women in Academic Science and Engineering

Book excerpt: During the last 40 years, the number of women studying science and engineering (S&E) has increased dramatically. Nevertheless, women do not hold academic faculty positions in numbers that commensurate with their increasing share of the S&E talent pool. The discrepancy exists at both the junior and senior faculty levels. In December 2005, the National Research Council held a workshop to explore these issues. Experts in a number of disciplines met to address what sex-differences research tells us about capability, behavior, career decisions, and achievement; the role of organizational structures and institutional policy; cross-cutting issues of race and ethnicity; key research needs and experimental paradigms and tools; and the ramifications of their research for policy, particularly for evaluating current and potential academic faculty. Biological, Social, and Organizational Components of Success for Women in Academic Science and Engineering consists of three elements: an introduction, summaries of panel discussions including public comment sessions, and poster abstracts.