ADVANCE Rice University Workshop

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Random Collisions and Ordered Events on the
Pathway to Academic Success

• ADVANCE Rice University Workshop
• October 5, 2008
• Donna J. Dean, Ph.D.

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AWIS

• Association for Women in Science
• A Network, A Resource, A Voice

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Strategic Directions

• Advocacy Public Education
• Promoting Institutional Change and Best
  Practices
• Career Development

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We have a system that claims to reward based on
merit but instead rewards traits such as
assertiveness that are socially less acceptable
for women.
BEYOND BIAS AND BARRIERS Fulfilling the Potential
of Women in Academic Science and Engineering
Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public
Policy National Academies of Sciences. 2006
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CRITERIA FOR SUCCESS
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Tools that Can Help Us

• Self Analysis
• Networking
• Mentoring
• Coaching

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Self Analysis
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Networking
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Mentoring
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Coaching
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OF PIPELINES AND GLASS CEILINGS. . .
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CRITICAL ELEMENTS

• Pipeline
• Climate
• Unconscious bias
• Balancing personal life and work
• Community and culture

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1. PIPELINE

• Mentoring is NOT cloning!
• Glass ceilings and sticky floors

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2. CLIMATE

• The general workplace
• The scientific workplace
• Administration
• Scientists
• Scientist-Administrators

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3. UNCONSCIOUS BIAS

• We have an evolutionary predisposition to dwell
  on differences.
• Subtle gender bias and social expectations
• Different from, not better than
• Move up, reach down
• - Elizabeth Spielke, Harvard

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3. UNCONSCIOUS BIAS

• Unconscious discrimination arises due to deep
  seated habits that will be very hard to change -
  our selection procedures tend to select not only
  for talents that are directly relevant to success
  in science but also for assertiveness and single
  mindedness . . . . qualities that are at best
  very indirectly related to being a good scientist
  and that clash with cultural pressures.
• - Howard Georgi, Harvard

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4. BALANCING PERSONAL LIFE AND WORK

• Seriously reconsider assumptions about what
  successful individuals careers are supposed to
  look like
• Women follow less direct paths/different
  sequences of positions in a different spirit
• Some evidence that productivity occurs later in
  womens careers than male counterparts

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5. COMMUNITY AND CULTURE

• Culture eats strategy for lunch
• Mark Bard, management guru

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I like the dreams of the future better than the
history of the past. --Thomas Jefferson
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• encourage women to become connected to a large
  community that encourages, sustains and supports
  them in their careers
• work with students to foster a more supportive
  and favorable climate for all

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Every Persons Bill of Rights

• The right to be treated with respect.
• The right to have and express our own feelings.
• The right to be listened to and taken seriously.
• The right to set our priorities.
• The right to say no without feeling guilty.

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It Isnt Just Science!

• Of the 2000 plays performed in 2001-2002 season,
  only 17 were by women writers.
• Fewer than 1 of orchestral performances in
  2002-2003 represented works by women.
• What is the Fund for Women Artists working to do?
• Transform social stereotypes in the arts
• Empower female artists
• Increase opportunities

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Concepts

• Acquiring the requisite credentials
• Recognizing opportunities
• Learning from mistakes and missteps
• Dealing with own biases and misconceptions

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Concepts

• Developing a sense of ones career directions and
  timing
• Selecting appropriate role models
• Meshing ones values with the workplace
• Balancing the pieces of ones life

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Concepts

• Creating opportunities for others
• Knowing when to move on
• Calculated risk-taking

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Life Balance and Career in Context
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Life Balance and Career in Context
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Life Balance and Career in Context
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Tension is who you think you should be.
Relaxation is who you are.
--Chinese proverb
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• Condescending chivalry
• Supportive discouragement
• Friendly harassment
• Radiant devaluation
• Benevolent exploitation
• Considerate domination
• Collegial exclusion
• Ref Gender, Work, and Medicine, NEJM 33160
  7/7/1994

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So, What is a Woman to Do?
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• Toothpick
• Rubber band
• Band-aid
• Pencil
• Eraser
• Earplugs
• Gum
• Mint
• Chocolate kiss

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• Life is too short not to do what you love.
• Be open to the possibilities that will come your
  way unexpectedly.

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WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN?
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The lens you peer through determines the view you
see and what you describe to others.
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Four little words that can change the
world

• You
• can
• do it!

DJ Dean, 3/27/2006
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Career Trees (not ladders)
Many branches can lead to success
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Questions?
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Whom the gods wish to destroy, they give
unlimited resources.
---Twyla Tharp, choreographer
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Universities

• Rutgers University
• Georgia Institute of Technology
• University of Cincinnati
• Tulane University
• Florida Atlantic University
• University of Houston
• New Mexico State University
• University of Southern California
• California Institute of Technology
• University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

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National Facilities

• National Primate Research Centers
• University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
  (NCAR)
• Fermi Research Alliance (FRA)
• Associated Universities, Inc. (NRAO)

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Scientific Organizations

• Association of Independent Research Institutes
• Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
• Sea Grant Association
• National Association of Marine Laboratories
• Council on Social Work Education
• Public Broadcasting Service
• South Dakota Science and Technology Authority