Programs for Undergraduate Women in Science and Engineering: What Works?

Mary Frank Fox, NSF Advance Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology , co-director, Center for the Study of Women, Science, & Technology

will speak on Monday, June 12 at 3 PM in Carnegie Conference Room East in Warner Hall .

Title: "Programs for Undergraduate Women in Science and Engineering: What Works?"

Description: Efforts to open pathways for women -and other under-represented groups- in science and engineering frequently take the form of programs or sets of activities thought to affect the targeted group. This presentation reports on one phase of a large, national study of programs for undergraduate women in science and engineering -- and identifies the patterns and characteristics associated with the more, compared to less, successful programs. The measure of success is based upon the difference between pre- and post-program rates of growth of the percentage of women among recipients of bachelor's degrees in science and engineering fields. The findings have implications for potential practices and policies to support the participation and performance of women in science and engineering. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Mary Farnk Fox Brief Bio: Ph.D., University of Michigan, Sociology B. A., University of Michigan, Sociology
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Mary Frank Fox is NSF Advance Professor in the School of Public Policy, and co-director, Center for the Study of Women, Science, & Technology, at Georgia Institute of Technology. Her research focuses upon gender, science, and academia--the study of women and men in academic and scientific organizations and occupations.

Her research has introduced and established ways in which participation and performance of women and men reflect and are affected by social and organizational features of science and academia. She has addressed these complex processes in a range of research encompassing education and educational programs, collaborative practices, salary rewards, publication productivity, social attributions and expectations, and academic careers. Her work appears in over 40 different scholarly and scientific journals, books, and collections.

Dr. Fox's current research projects include a Study of Programs for Women in Science and Engineering, supported by NSF; continuing study of students and faculty in doctoral education in five scientific fields, supported by NSF; and the research program of the NSF ADVANCE Institutional Transformation award to Georgia Tech, for which she is Co-PI.

She is associate editor of Sex Roles: A Journal of Research; member of the editorial advisory panels of Social Studies of Science, and the Vanderbilt University Issues in Higher Education Book Series; and co-editor of the new book series on Women, Gender, and Technology, published by University of Illinois Press.

Among her appointments and offices are: Chair of Theory and Research, Social Science Advisory, National Center for Women and Information Technology; research panel on Careers of Life Scientists and consultant for the Study of Gender Differences in Science and Engineering, National Research Council/National Academy of Sciences; past president of Sociologists for Women in Society (SWS); and numerous offices in the American Sociological Association.

She was awarded the SWS Feminist Lecturer 2000 (for a "feminist scholar who has made a commitment to social change"), and the 2002 WEPAN (Women in Engineering Programs) Betty Vetter Research Award (for "notable achievement in research on women in engineering").