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4 Effective Practices for Addressing Gender Disparity in Recruitment, Advancement, and Retention in STEMM
Pages 91-120

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From page 91...
... A growing body of research literature and an increasing number of examples identify strategies and practices that institutions and organizations can adopt to diversify talent pools, mitigate biases in evaluation and promotion, and create and sustain a positive, inclusive organizational climate (Boxes 4-4 and 4-5)
From page 92...
... In the biological and biomedical sciences, particular attention should be paid to the postdoctoral stage and recruitment into the professoriate, as well as to biases that prevent retention and advancement of women into more senior ranks in academia, industry, and medicine. Given the limitations of the existing research, successful implementation of the strategies and practices outlined in this chapter will be facilitated by the collection and monitoring of data on the recruitment, retention, and advancement of White women and women of other marginalized identities within institutional units (e.g., departments)
From page 93...
... by adopting or "adapting" strategies that enhance their appeal to a broader range of potential applicants and increase the likelihood of fair and effective evaluation of candidates. High levels of retention, a positive climate, and a good record of equitable advancement will support these strategies, but improving recruitment and hiring practices is an essential part of the overall institutional change needed to increase the presence of women scientists in an organization.
From page 94...
... is a productive strategy for attracting a more diverse pool of applicants. Specific practices to construct these signals include: • Writing job advertisements in a way that is appealing to a broad appli cant pool, particularly by avoiding gendered wording in job descriptions (Gaucher et al., 2011)
From page 95...
... Making hiring and admissions decisions can be a time-consuming and complex process, especially when there are many qualified applicants. In many employment settings, hiring managers, admissions officials, and search committees use shortcuts to identify a subset of the most promising candidates.
From page 96...
... . Those making hiring or admissions decisions should be aware of how their biases can affect their judgments and should be required to adopt practices that will mitigate biases in evaluation.
From page 97...
... To facilitate implementing clear hiring criteria, evaluators can, for example: • Implement a "short-list review" (Billimoria, 2010) , whereby the evalu ators share their short list of candidates, their efforts to recruit a diverse applicant pool, and the demographic makeup of their list with an admin istrative office or leader.
From page 98...
... 98 WOMEN IN STEMM: OPENING DOORS BOX 4-2 Example: Application Review Sheet The application review sheet that appears below is reproduced from the Univer sity of Michigan ADVANCE Program's Handbook for Faculty Searches and Hiring.
From page 99...
... ADVANCE Institu tional Transformation award, which supported the implementation of many of the effective practices outlined in this chapter with the goal of increasing the representation and advancement of women in academic science and engineering careers. Through a range of activities, including the creation of handbooks of best practices to support equitable recruitment, retention, and promotion practices, UW has seen significant positive impacts.
From page 100...
... (2015) suggests that bias mitigation education that uses certain practices has the potential to move beyond simply raising awareness of bias to actually reducing gender disparities in hiring and improving organizational climate.
From page 101...
... Once a short list has been established, organizations and institutions should ensure that interviews are fair, and recognize that the interview will influence a candidate's decision to accept an offer. Fair interviews adhere to the following guidelines: • To verify that every candidate is treated equitably, employers should hold structured interviews with candidates, which are more resistant to biasing factors in evaluation than unstructured interviews (Levashina et al., 2014)
From page 102...
... WHAT WORKS TO IMPROVE ADVANCEMENT Background Biases in evaluation for promotion are well documented and lead to different outcomes for women and men as they advance through their careers. In one recent study of performance evaluations in the technology sector, 75.5 percent of women's performance evaluations included language that was critical of their personality or behavior (e.g., "you come off as abrasive")
From page 103...
... Sponsorship2 is an important avenue to improve numbers of women in senior leadership. Neither formal mentoring programs nor executive coaching led to increases of women in top leadership, but sponsorship programs designed to accelerate the careers of women as leaders had a positive impact; in contrast with mentors, who work closely with faculty to enhance their research and education skills, sponsors have the position, power, and influence needed to advocate publicly for advancement of talented women to senior leadership positions (Helms et al., 2016; Travis et al., 2013)
From page 104...
... • Collect data to answer questions such as: o Do your performance evaluations show consistently higher ratings for majority men than for women, people of color, or other underrepre sented groups? o Do ratings decline after women employees have children, take parental leave, or adopt flexible work arrangements?
From page 105...
... Have a trained bias interrupter in the room. • Retain a formal performance appraisal system.
From page 106...
... weren't advancing. While some listening session participants felt that formal efforts to ensure equal distribution of service labor could help to address this challenge, others proposed that recognizing faculty contributions to diversity in their departments would better help to preserve these important contributions (for example, access to effective mentorship for underrepresented students)
From page 107...
... WHAT WORKS TO IMPROVE RETENTION AND ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE Background Creating positive and collegial work environments is an essential element in retaining employees and thus is critical for achieving gender parity. STEMM professionals, regardless of gender or race, require similar conditions to thrive: inclusion, full participation, and community respect.
From page 108...
... Select examples of universities that have documented the im portance of diversity, equity, and inclusion in their policies and procedures include: Oregon State University: The university's stated goals include developing a collaborative and inclusive community that strives for equity and equal opportu nity; faculty are expected to ensure that these goals are achieved. In fact, related to faculty positions, university policies note that "stipulated contributions to equity, inclusion, and diversity should be clearly identified in the position description so that they can be evaluated in promotion and tenure decisions.
From page 109...
... Establishing or incorporates equity participating in a supporting the and inclusion issues research group that creation of new and/or diversity in addresses equity and academic initiatives objects of study (e.g., inclusion (e.g., Law (e.g., Education faculty Psychology faculty school faculty leads establishes a disability incorporates diverse a research group on studies research individuals within their gender and labor) initiative)
From page 110...
... . Therefore, in order to successfully retain women in STEMM, organizations and institutions need to commit to changing organizational climates.
From page 111...
... . STRATEGY 2: Create a respectful and equitable organizational climate.
From page 112...
... Over time, these processes embedded values and beliefs held by a majority of department members as shared values and beliefs of the department, which ultimately shaped the department culture. The focus groups also identified a number of facilitators of positive organizational climate, including: Gender balance affects climate.
From page 113...
... A major finding of the focus group research conducted for this report was that family leave-related policies and practices within extramural funding agencies are a major barrier to gender equity among STEMM faculty, even when university-level policies are supportive. For example, participants explained that the fact that faculty with National Institutes of Health funding drain their grants during paid family leave forces individuals to choose between having their grant funds expended while work is paused or avoid taking leave altogether.
From page 114...
... As discussed in Chapter 2, it is important to acknowledge that the "ideal worker norm" 24/7 work culture of certain STEMM disciplines disadvantages women because they tend to bear a greater share of parenting and domestic responsibilities relative to men. In one study, married or partnered female physician researchers with children reported spending 8.5 hours more per week on parenting and/or domestic activities than male physician researchers (Villablanca et al., 2011)
From page 115...
... . Bystander intervention training has increasingly been used in higher educa tion environments to address sexual violence among students, and efforts have recently been developed for addressing sexual harassment in workplace and education environments within higher education for undergraduate and gradu ate students, and faculty, and staff.
From page 116...
... The absence of guaranteed paid leave has serious health consequences for parents and children. Parents with short or unpaid leaves are more likely to experience physical and mental health problems, delayed health care visits for babies, shortened duration of breastfeeding, financial hardship, and denial of raises or promotions compared with parents with generous family leave policies (Human Rights Watch, 2011)
From page 117...
... b. Writing job advertisements in ways that would be appealing to a broad applicant pool.
From page 118...
... It is important to acknowledge that most of the research on these strategies has not disaggregated data by gender and intersectional identity (e.g., race, disability status, sexual orientation) and has tended to focus on improvements for White women at research universities.
From page 119...
... h. Creating policies and practices that address workers' need to balance work and family roles, recognizing that these policies increase productivity and enhance work performance.


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