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Six members of the MU-ADVANCE team traveled to Washington, DC for the NSF-ADVANCE Principal Investigators’ meeting. Marcia Harrison, Tina Cartwright, Elaine Baker, Elizabeth Murray, Kathleen Miezio and Heidi Williams attended the event, held in Washington DC from June 18-20, 2007. The conference was broken down into presentations and small group discussions. Presentation topics ranged from the “Social Psychology of Academic Women in Science and Engineering” to institutional climate survey results. A great deal of time was spent discussing gender biases in higher education. Although the information was limitless, only a few interesting details will be shared in this article. It was pointed out that jobs are gendered. In particular, when jobs are created and designed to “fit” men better than women, discrimination is bound to surface. In other words, when workers are deemed ideal, typically it is because they can relocate at any given moment, can work for decades without interruptions and have someone at home doing all “that” work. Therefore, these ideal workers are usually male. Moreover, it is believed that women hit a “maternal wall.” Once they have the children, women face yet another set of standards, which men are free from. Women are 44% less likely to be hired once they are mothers and will earn an average of $11,000.00 less per year than their female, childless counterparts. Mothers will need to perform at a higher level and will face enforced punctuality standards. Solution: Departments need to create a culture of faculty support, where women, with children or without, are treated according to their productivity and service to the institution. On the
final day, the ADVANCE community bid adieu to the
forerunner of the program, Alice Hogan.
Due to Hogan’s vision
and perseverance, the ADVANCE program metamorphosed
from an idea to a reality, making change possible on
many college/university campuses across the country.
Hogan will join her
husband in Massachusetts and begin a new career,
thus a new chapter in her life.
MU-ADVANCE wishes Hogan
many more successes throughout her career.
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