NSF: Programs and Plans

1. Increasing the Number of Women in Science and Engineering NSF: Programs and Plans Kathleen McCloud Physics Division National Science Foundation

2. Broadening ParticipationA General Definition for NSF NSF defines broadening participation in terms of individuals from underrepresented groups as well as institutions and geographic areas that do not participate in NSF research programs at rates comparable to others. • Includes women, underrepresented minorities, and persons with disabilities • Can depend somewhat on scientific community

3. NSF Programs and Activities • NSF perspective • MPS Gender Equity Workshops • ADVANCE

4. From the NSF perspective Provide training for staff on NSF priorities and mechanisms for broadening participation and workforce development, including topics such as outreach approaches, reviewer selection, and mitigation of implicit bias in the review process.* * "A Framework for Action"

5. Broadening Participation in Proposal Review • Solicitation language • Review criteria • Implicit bias and panelists • Panel and reviewer selection • Overhaul of the internal panelist system to address BP

6. Solicitation Language • Integrating Diversity into NSF Programs, Projects, and Activities Broadening opportunities and enabling the participation of all citizens -- women and men, underrepresented minorities, and persons with disabilities -- is essential to the health and vitality of science and engineering. NSF is committed to this principle of diversity and deems it central to the programs, projects, and activities it considers and supports.

7. How well does the activity advance discovery and understanding while promoting teaching, training, and learning? How well does the proposed activity broaden the participation of underrepresented groups (e.g., gender, ethnicity, disability, geographic, etc.)? To what extent will it enhance the infrastructure for research and education, such as facilities, instrumentation, networks, and partnerships? Will the results be disseminated broadly to enhance scientific and technological understanding? What may be the benefits of the proposed activity to society? Criterion 2

8. Dear Colleague Letters • CHE, DMR, and DMS all have Dear Colleague Letters that specifically address BP in their communities • These letters can be found on the Division Websites

9. NSF, DOE, NIH-sponsored workshop Jan. 2006 Building Strong Academic ChemistryDepartments through Gender Equity A key recommendation to funding agencies is to develop policies to ensure gender equity in proposal review through: • instituting procedures for training of reviewers and grantees on diversity issues • modifications of peer review processes where necessary to ensure gender equity Sept. 2006 NAS study Beyond Bias and Barriers reiterates these recommendations

10. Informing Panelists • Implicit bias toward a group • Non-conscious hypotheses/stereotypes, often about competence • Lack of critical mass a greater reliance on implicit bias • Few women and minorities in sciences • Accumulation of disadvantage • Small bias in same direction has large effect over time • Very small differences in treatment can have major consequences in salary, promotion and prestige Valian (1998) Information from a slideshow on implicit bias developed for all panelists by the CHE Division, now available NSF-wide

11. Minimizing Bias in Evaluation • Implicit bias toward a group (“schemas”) • Non-conscious hypotheses/stereotypes, often about competence • Lack of critical mass a greater reliance on schemas • Few women and minorities in sciences • Accumulation of disadvantage • Small bias in same direction has large effect over time • Very small differences in treatment can have major consequences in salary, promotion and prestige Valian (1998)

12. Schemas are… • Widely culturally shared • All people, even members of under-represented groups, hold schemas about these groups • People are often not aware of them • Applied more under circumstances of: • Lack of information • Stress from competing tasks • Time pressure • Lack of critical mass Fiske (2002). Current Directions in Psychological Science, 11, 123-128.

13. Impact of Blind Auditions When orchestra auditioners were behind a screen, the percentage of female new hires for orchestral jobs increased 25 – 46%. Goldin & Rouse (2000) The American Economic Review, 90, 4, 715-741. (14,133 auditioners over 25 years)

14. Evaluation of Identical CVs: Race • “Jamal” had to send 15 resumes to get a callback, compared to 10 needed by “Greg.” • “Greg” yielded as many more callbacks as an additional eight years of experience for “Jamal.” • The higher the resume quality, the higher the gap between callbacks for “Greg” and “Jamal.” Jamal Greg Bertrand & Mullainathan (2004) Poverty Action Lab, 3, 1-27.

15. Evaluation of Fellowship Applications “…the success rate of female scientists applying for postdoctoral fellowships at the [Swedish Medical Research Council] during the 1990s has been less than half that of male applicants.” Wenneras & Wold (1997) Nature, 387, p. 341 Women had to be 2.5 times more productive to receive the same competence score. Similar findings: GAO report on Peer Review in Federal Agency Grant Selection (1994); and European Molecular Biology Organization Reports (2001) *Cited by Richard Zare, Stanford chemistry professor and former NSB chair, editorial in 5/15/06 Chemistry and Engineering News

16. Ways to Mitigate Evaluation Bias (1) Increase awareness of how schemas might bias evaluation (2) Decrease time pressure and distractions in evaluation process (3) Rate on explicit criteria rather than global judgments (4) Point to specific evidence supporting judgments Bauer & Baltes, 2002, Sex Roles, 47 (9/10), 465-476 Please incorporate (3) & (4) in your discussions

17. MPS-funded Workshops for Department Chairs • Chemistry Workshop on Gender Equity • Physics Workshop on Gender Equity (co-funded AST, PHY, DMR) • Materials Science and Engineering Workshop on Gender Equity • Chemistry Workshop on Under-represented Minorities • Workshop on Excellence Empowered by a Diverse Academic Workforce: Chemists, Chemical Engineers and Materials Scientists with Disabilities

18. 1.To educate the chemistry departments about the value of diversity in their departments, the importance of aggressively pursuing gender diversity in appointments and the need to eliminate gender related barriers and biases that impair the appointment and advancement of women chemists. 2. To establish a set of goals for achieving gender equity in research active chemistry departments and report annual progress towards these goals. 3. To make recommendations to funding agencies for how to assist in this effort.

19. Gender Equity Workshop for Physics Chairs (PHY, DMR, AST) Goal: To double the number of women in physics in the next 15 years by informing, educating and providing chairs of physics departments and physics-oriented national laboratory managers the tools to achieve that goal. Attendees: 50 major research-oriented academic physics departments as well as about 15 physics-related managers of major national laboratories. Physics Today, July 2007 May 2007 College Park Maryland http://www.aps.org/programs/women/workshops/gender-equity/ Sponsored by NSF and DOE

20. Gender Equity in Materials Science and Engineering University of Maryland Adelphi, Maryland May 2008 Attendees: ~ 50 Chairs from Materials Science academic departments and government laboratories. Goals: Similar to previous chemistry and physics chairs workshops. http://www.mse.uiuc.edu/gender/index.htm Sponsored by NSF and DOE

21. CHE Workshop on Under-Represented Minorities Excellence Empowered by a Diverse Academic Workforce: Achieving Racial & Ethnic Equity in Chemistry September 24 – 26, 2007 Arlington, VA • Funded by NSF, DOE, and NIH • With DOE and NIH • Chairs of the top 50 chemistry departments attended. • Chairs will report on action items at the Workshop website. workshop report http://chemchairs.uoregon.edu/urm/images/urmreport.pdf.

22. Common Agenda for Gender-Equity Workshops Pre-workshop Survey Opening Evening Session: Defining the issues; data on demographics; theatre group to illustrate issues. Next 1.5 days: • Presentations from experts on issues impacting the careers of women in STEM fields: Implicit bias, gender schemas, family issues. • Presentations highlighting best practices and challenges in academic institutions, national laboratories and departments. • Presentations from federal funding representatives on their current challenges and activities on gender equity issues. • Break-out sessions to identify issues and set of best practices for departments, research centers and institutions. • Develop goals for department chairs to implement. Evaluation Survey Post-workshop Survey Presentation developed by Geri Richmond, U of Oregon

23. Monitoring the Long-Term Impact • All workshops developed a series of goals and action plans. • All workshops have/are developing a website for chairs to report their progress. Presentation developed by Geri Richmond, U of Oregon

24. The ADVANCE Program Program Goal: Increase the participation and advancement of women at all levels in academic science and engineering careers. Creative strategies to realize this goal should involve and are sought from both men and women There are three program components; Institutional Transformation IT-Catalyst Partnerships for Adaptation, Implementation, and Dissemination (PAID)

25. Institutional Transformation (IT) The IT component has been in all program solicitations since 2001 5-year projects $2 M to $4 M total Comprehensive, institution-wide, projects to transform the culture of the university or college Examples of project activities: Reviewing, updating, and clarifying hiring, promotion and tenure policies, Developing dual career hiring policies, Establishing mentoring programs, Providing training for departmental leaders Climate surveys and data analysis

26. IT-Catalyst Projects Previously “IT-Start” piloted in the 07-582 solicitation Up to 2-year projects $100 K to $200 K total Planning and assessment activities to prepare for transformational activities. Examples of project activities: Climate surveys to establish baseline data Data collection and analysis Planning meetings with stake holders Research on potential strategies

27. Partnerships for Adaptation, Implementation, and Dissemination (PAID) One year to five year projects Funding depends on the scope of the project Some projects adapt, implement and/or diffuse exemplary ADVANCE IT strategies to increase the participation of women in STEM academics. Some projects are social science research proposals related to gender in STEM faculty and academic leadership positions Other examples of projects may include: Workshop projects Leadership development programs

28. Program Management ADVANCE is a “NSF-wide” program • The Assistant Directors (ADs) of each participating directorate reviews and approves the program solicitation and management plan • Program funds are located in the participating directorates and offices ADVANCE Implementation Committee (AIC) • One or more representatives from each participating Directorate and Office • Acts as an advisory committee • Meets monthly to discuss program management and related issues

29. ADVANCE Program Directors: • Jessie DeAro - jdearo@nsf.gov Integrative Activities Specialist: • Pat Simms – psimms@nsf.gov ADVANCE NSF Website • http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5383&from=fund ADVANCE Web Portal • http://research.cs.vt.edu/advance/index.htm

30. ADVANCE Lessons • Implement standardized and transparent departmental policies and procedures • Collect departmental data and relevant national data and share it with the department • Support formal mentoring inside and outside the department • Establish a culture and develop programs supportive of work-life balance (for instance, daycare opportunities) • Focus on changing the department to achieve equity, not “changing the individuals” to suit the environment

31. ADVANCE Lessons • Recruitment • Establish group expectations for diversity • Require candidate pools that reflect the available pool • Create broader position announcements to widen the pool of qualified candidates • Purposefully select diverse and knowledgeable search committee • Train search committee chairs and members on implicit bias, etc. • Require documentation be reported on each search (e.g., committee composition, demographics of candidates interviewed, reasons for hire decision, etc.) • Highlight work-life balance programs and policies to all candidates

32. ADVANCE Lessons • Promotion and Tenure • Publish tenure and promotion requirements • Mentor junior faculty (Include mentoring by department chair and faculty inside and outside of the department) • Develop multiple mentors for faculty, a mentoring circle • Implement pre-tenure review • Actively encourage faculty to pursue promotion • Thoughtfully select P&T committee • Train P&T Committee on implicit bias, etc. • Assign service and teaching demands equitably • Encourage all faculty to take advantage of available work-life balance programs (stop the clock policies, etc.) and ensure P&T decisions are not negatively influenced as a result

33. Questions?