Investing in Career Development and Lifelong Learning

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "Investing in Career Development and Lifelong Learning"

Frank Miller
5 years ago
Views:

1 Investing in Career Development and Lifelong Learning Janet Bandows Koster Executive Director NPA Summit on Gender and the Postdoctorate March 11, 2010

2 Women Suffer from Superwoman Syndrome

3 What We Know about Gender and the Postdoc Women carry the major burden of work outside work The Three C s: Cleaning, Caregiving, Coordination Women are often excluded from informal networks Women don t negotiate as aggressively as men Women don t nominate themselves for awards and recognition

4 Invest in Yourself Tell you how to get ahead in your career Strategies to help you get there Resources available as you move along the career continuum

5 Join Professional Societies More than 400 Scientific Societies in US Society for Neuroscience American Society for Microbiology Professional societies dedicated to gender equity: AWIS SWE AWM Other Professional Organizations Toastmasters

6 Benefits of Membership Differentiation Pays Networking Personal skill building Career enhancement Raising Personal Profile Recognition

7 AWIS Who We Are The premiere leadership organization advocating the interests of women in science and technology For nearly 40 years, fighting for fair career advancement for women from the lab bench to the board room Vigilant against workforce obstacles that prevent women from realizing their full potential in STEM Uniting women through a nationwide network of chapters and partnerships with aligned professional organizations

8 AWIS Represents Women in All Sectors of Science

9 AWIS has 54 chapters around the United States

10 Career Advancement for Women AWIS provides professional development resources Webinars, teleseminars, magazine, career advice AWIS disseminates tools and techniques that enable the women scientist in her career Washington Wire, AWIS Magazine AWIS allows women in science to achieve their full career potential AWIS empowers women to excel in STEM fields Mentoring, networking, advocating

11 NEW MENTORING HANDBOOK Getting the Most out of your Mentoring Relationships Provides a quick yet structured guide to mentoring Includes a handy resource guide for quick reference Is the most comprehensive handbook catered to women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics

12 AWIS/Elsevier Partnership Goal: To provide women in STEM with resources and skill sets to successfully juggle the competing demands of personal and professional responsibilities Delivery: Live chapter presentations, web based training, on demand e resources, on going peer networking and supplemental coaching Program Timeline

13 Work Life Balance Satisfaction Begins with AWARENESS

14 Recognition Awards and prizes play a critical role in shaping and advancing STEM careers. Under representation of women among STEM award recipients presents a barrier to their advancement in these fields. While the proportion of Ph.D. degrees earned by women in STEM fields has increased substantially over the past 25 years (National Science Foundation 2006; England et al. 2007), the increase in the number of women receiving awards from scientific societies has not kept pace. PROPORTION OF WOMEN US PhD RECIPIENTS ALL AWARDS WOMEN'S AWARDS EXCLUDED Fig. 1 Science Awards by Gender ( ) Women receive a disproportionately small share of science awards compared to science PhDs

15 How Women Fare From , women received approximately 12% of all scientific awards for which both men and women were eligible. For over half (54%) of these 1066 awards, women were the recipients less than 10% of the time. Over the past 25 years, the number of awards specifically for women has increased. From 1981 to 2006, the number of womenonly awards in the RAISE database rose from 5 to 71. This has increased the overall number of female award recipients in all STEM disciplines to almost 25% in While often intended to highlight women s research and compensate for biases in the nomination and selection processes, women only awards have the potential to ghettoize and devalue women s scientific contributions, the precise results these awards are intended to ameliorate (Williams 2006).

16 Collective Representation The premier voice for women scientists in the public policy arena The only voice that speaks on a national level for all women in science The authoritative voice on the status of women e.g. through gender equity research via ADVANCE grants A champion for women nominees for awards and fellowships

17 Hope for the Future More organizations and institutions formalizing work life policies and practices, including benefits like on site childcare or assistance finding it, domestic partner benefits, mandatory stopping of the tenure clock for both men and women upon childbirth or adoption, etc. NSF ADVANCE Grants & Sloan Awards for Career Flexibility (both academic and corporate) EEOC best practice recommendations re: work life balance Changing attitudes about women in the workplace AWIS will continue to advocate on behalf of all women postdocs

18 What Can Institutions Do Promote the importance of professional societies Publicize opportunities in professional societies Subsidize membership in professional societies Become institutional members of professional societies

19 1442 Duke Street Alexandria, VA (202)

MEMBERSHIP. Early-Career Professional. Specialized support for a successful transition from student to professional

MEMBERSHIP. Early-Career Professional. Specialized support for a successful transition from student to professional MEMBERSHIP Early-Career Professional Specialized support for a successful transition from student to professional APHA provides so many networking opportunities, and as an Early-Career Professional, I