WOMEN, POLITICS, AND GENDER INEQUALITY

Women’s representation in United States politics has increased but remains substantially lower than in many other countries. This Article first examines the structural impediments to higher levels of women’s representation, including how gender stereotypes may limit women’s electoral success. Then, the focus shifts to how women’s representation may and may not result in different kinds of policy priorities. Finally, the Article takes a more intersectional approach to consider how variations among women impact political priorities and approaches

Equitable Evaluation During COVID

Evaluating faculty must evolve, given that faculty experiences have differed during the pandemic. Yet, faculty need an opportunity to document their contributions and achievements, as well as the pandemic-related limitations they have experienced. The goal is to enter this information into the record in a way that recognizes how each faculty member’s workload (how much they were doing in different areas) and work context (where and how they did their work) have differed due to the pandemic, and that allows the university to account for the pandemic’s long-term effects. Memories are short. When faculty are evaluated years down the road, the constraints they operated under must be recognized

Equitable Faculty Evaluation Practices

Faculty evaluation is central to universities, but many strategies for evaluating faculty reflect gender and racial biases. These biases in evaluation help explain the lack of progress most academic institutions have made toward greater representation and inclusion. This makes it urgent for universities to create more equitable review procedures. It is also important to remember that faculty evaluation is a continual process, and not simply a set of discrete, formal, evaluative events. Thus, to improve evaluation of faculty, we need to target how we evaluate faculty in formal and informal ways. The good news is that relatively simple changes in process and practice can enhance equity and inclusion in faculty evaluation

Collaboration and Gender Equity among Academic Scientists

Universities were established as hierarchical bureaucracies that reward individual attainment in evaluating success. Yet collaboration is crucial both to 21st century science and, we argue, to advancing equity for women academic scientists. We draw from research on gender equity and on collaboration in higher education, and report on data collected on one campus. Sixteen focus group meetings were held with 85 faculty members from STEM departments, separated by faculty rank and gender (i.e., assistant professor men, full professor women). Participants were asked structured questions about the role of collaboration in research, career development, and departmental decision-making. Inductive analyses of focus group data led to the development of a theoretical model in which resources, recognition, and relationships create conditions under which collaboration is likely to produce more gender equitable outcomes for STEM faculty. Ensuring women faculty have equal access to resources is central to safeguarding their success; relationships, including mutual mentoring, inclusion and collegiality, facilitate women’s careers in academia; and recognition of collaborative work bolsters women’s professional advancement. We further propose that gender equity will be stronger in STEM where resources, relationships, and recognition intersect—having multiplicative rather than additive effects

UMass ADVANCE STEM Race and Gender Findings 2022

The UMass ADVANCE program is working to ensure greater equity among faculty through the power of collaboration. In the 2022 ADVANCE survey, 273 UMass faculty from 32 STEM departments in CICS, CNS, College of Engineering, and SBS responded. In this research brief, we describe some of the key findings from this survey, focusing on patterns among STEM faculty by gender and race. We explore whether and how the intersection of gender and race affect STEM faculty inclusion, shared decision-making, and research collaboration

UMass ADVANCE STEM Caregiving and Gender Findings 2022

In this research brief, we describe some of the key findings from this survey, focusing on patterns among STEM faculty by gender and caregiving status. We explore whether and how the intersection of gender and caregiving status affect STEM faculty inclusion, shared decision-making, and research collaboration

UMass ADVANCE STEM Nationality and Gender Findings 2022

In this research brief, we describe some of the key findings from this survey, focusing on patterns among STEM faculty by gender and nationality. We explore whether and how the intersection of gender and nationality affect STEM faculty inclusion, shared decision-making, and research collaboration