Networking: Lessons Learned from Hunter College’s Gender Equity Project

1. Networking: Lessons Learned from Hunter College’s Gender Equity Project

2. Networking challenges vary with • Institution type, e.g., Research 1, Doctoral-granting, Liberal Arts, Comprehensive • Larger institutional context, e.g., urban/rural, commuter/residential college, resource rich/resource poor • Department characteristics, e.g., percentage of women, characteristics of chairs, quality of channels of communication • Discipline-related characteristics, e.g., percentage of women, ways of working • Personal and social characteristics of faculty member, e.g., sex, race, self-esteem, shyness, level of productivity, status in the field

3. About Hunter College • Carnegie Comprehensive in transition, with increasing emphasis on research productivity • High teaching loads and service obligations • Urban, commuter, resource-poor • Short tenure clock • Few family friendly policies • Hunter science departments have a larger percentage of women and underrepresented minorities among faculty than most other schools • Hunter’s GEP targets disciplines from the Natural and Physical Sciences to the Social Sciences, from departments with one woman to departments with nearly 50 percent women

4. Special challenges for Hunter women faculty • Structural • Few formal and informal faculty development opportunities • Few family friendly polices • Lack of a formal women’s organization/office on campus dedicated to women faculty or gender equity until GEP • System of elected chairs untrained, undercompensated, undersupported. Chairs vary in the extent to which they see themselves as advocates for junior faculty • In a commuter school in a large urban area, students and faculty isolated intellectually and socially and need communities

5. Special challenges for Hunter women faculty • Individual • Some associates have never had, or have largely lost, strong identities as researchers and scholars • Most associates are not on doctoral faculty and have no access to doctoral students • For those who have not published much, not published in a given area, or have not published in a long time, there may be a need for improved research skills • Need for increased appreciation for what kind of time, commitment, and activities are necessary for success in academic careers

6. About the GEP sponsorship program • Time and resources for research • $10,000 (in Year 1) • release time • research assistance • Travel • A sponsor • $5,000 (in Year 1) • serves as an intellectual sounding board • provides feedback on papers and career plans • Workshops • Tangible benefits for associates

7. Our 15 Associates: • Very diverse in all ways: • Two African American women, two Latina women, four Asian women • Assistant to Full Professor • From Sociology to Chemistry; from torture in the Middle East to lanthanide polyoxmetalates • From those with few publications in refereed journals to more than 30 publications; from no grants to history of external funding

8. Associates define their ideal sponsor variously, including as one who • Is of my race • Will be “gentle with me” • Will “hold my feet to the fire” • Has an affinity for a particular approach to scientific problems is in a specific research area • Has a particular skill set • Is physically close to Hunter College

9. Networking through sponsors • In the GEP, associates network through their sponsors • Two sponsors have played large roles in two associates getting their first book contracts • Two associates are now collaborating with their sponsors on auspicious new research projects • Two associates have formed significant relationships and found intellectual community at the home institutions of their sponsors • One associate was seriously contemplating leaving academia, but her identity and confidence as an academic are being restored, largely because of her sponsor Networking (inseparable from mentoring/ sponsoring/ community) is one of the most important and effective aspects of our program.

10. Networking through GEP Co-Directors • VVV and VCR have different areas of expertise, and that has proven useful to associates. Associates come to us for help with: • Assistance in the tenure and promotion processes • Conflicts in their departments with chairs, technical assistants, and fellow faculty • Corresponding with editors and collaborators • Setting priorities in their career • Conflicts between personal and professional life “I found it extremely helpful to be able to speak to VVV and VCR candidly about the situations I have been trying to deal with, and they have been outstanding resources for me.” “From conversations with VCR and VVV, I feel I am (slowly and somewhat painfully) learning a lot about being a professional academic, a scientist in my field.”

11. Networking through each other • For some of the women, the GEP community is the closest and best professional community they have. • Associates learn that they are not alone in their struggles to balance work and family, find time to write, or revise a rejected article, and exchange ideas • Associates form alliances within and across departments • Two associates who had never before collaborated are putting together a symposium on gender, race, and science • Associates meet informally with each other and support each other personally and professionally

12. Get known by important people in your field Propose colloquia and panels and invite prominent scientists Use professional conferences wisely One associate used the occasion of a conference to get her work known—and herself cited—by a prominent scientist Get known by important people in your institution Go to events in the institution that will maximize your visibility. GEP associates were in force at a recent holiday party Treat the chair, dean, and others as allies Networking beyond the GEP Be on the lookout for the unexpected—for help from seemingly unlikely sources

13. All major Sponsorship Program successes are directly or indirectly related to networking: • Importance of writing in a professional career — new personal identity • Mentorship from GEP as well as from sponsor • Understanding reward structure • Intellectual and social communities for associates: learning from each other

14. Significant challenges remain • Ethnic Minority WomenThere is reason to think that there may be special challenges in networking among minority women. • Race schemas work against minority women in academe • Minorities may be held to higher standards than others and encounter resentment and hostility as tokens • Being small statistical minorities also works against minority women in academic science • In turn, statistical minority status also shapes the expectations and experiences of outgroup members • Anticipation of being stereotyped may lead outgroup members to behave in ways that become self-fulfilling prophecies

15. Significant challenges remain • Ethnic Minority Women • The literature suggests that strong network ties are useful to people, but minority women are at periphery of social networks and they do not have powerful people advocating for them • Men have stronger network ties at work, and men make much better use of weak ties than women do • Cross race (and sex) relationships are difficult and often weak • When minority scientists are successful and viewed as competent, they are often overwhelmed with requests and opportunities

16. Significant challenges remain • Ethnic Minority Women • There are heightened pressures for within-group solidarity among underrepresented groups. This solidarity sometimes invites scrutiny and disapproval from those in the majority. • There is evidence that Hispanic and Asian people in organizations are subject to negative stereotypes, but are less likely than African Americans to report exclusion from informal networks

17. Significant challenges remain • Work Family Issues These are the some of the hardest issues for academic women, including women who have children, who want children, and who are single mothers. In addition, there are problems intertwining a career with one’s partner. • When to have children: life circumstances and preferences often determine this • If one has children: key is to commit to priorities and stick to them • Stopping the tenure clock: implicit clock still ticks in some minds • Spousal hires: challenges for negotiation