Conference Session

Women & New Faculty Development

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Julie Jessop, University of Iowa

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

ticking, and you’re getting antsy. You’ve delayed starting a family because youwanted to get settled into your academic position; however, that doesn’t seem such a good ideanow that you’re approaching your mid-30’s. What factors should you consider in making thedecision to start your family? Once you’ve decided to take the plunge into family life, what arestrategies you can use to strike a balance between your family and career? Here, personalexperiences of several female engineering faculty members from the University of Iowa will beshared, along with tips from other resources. Topics include: (1) Negotiating with your supervisor [how will baby’s arrival affect your contributions to the department/college?]; (2

Conference Session

K-12 Programs for Recruiting Women

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Karen White, Purdue University; Mara Wasburn, Purdue University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

building in the United States — a crisis that could jeopardize the nation’s pre-eminence and well-being. The crisis has been mounting gradually, but inexorably over several decades. If permitted to continue unmitigated, it could reverse the global leadership Americans currently enjoy.1 (Jackson, 2004).This excerpt is from the Building Engineering and Science Talent (BEST) initiative2, a reportissued in September 2001 by the Council on Competitiveness, a group of industrial, university,and labor leaders whose mission is elevating national competitiveness to the forefront of nationalconsciousness. The Council on Competitiveness is a public-private partnership “to identify themost effective strategies for building a more diverse

Conference Session

K-12 Programs for Recruiting Women

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Emma Seiler, Mississippi State University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

. Salariesfor the counselors vary from $300 for counselors who do not stay in the dorm to $400 for thosewho do. The coordinator is paid $500. Participants are required to pay a registration fee of$100. A total summary of costs can be found in Figure 1. Item Total Cost Housing $2,400.00 Food $3,000.00 Banquet $1,500.00 Salaries $2,200.00 T-shirts, lanyards, etc. $600.00 Supplies $1,000.00

Conference Session

International and Sustainability Perspectives and Women in Engineering

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Alicia Abadie, Louisiana State University; Ann Christy, Ohio State University; Marybeth Lima, Louisiana State University-Baton Rouge

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

experiences as womenfaculty were remarkably similar, we wondered about the experiences of others in the discipline.This led to an original survey that Lima and Christy developed and administered (withundergraduate researcher Cauble) to female faculty in BAE in 1998. Our objectives were (1) tosurvey this group on their motivations for choosing engineering, their personal and professionalexperiences, and their reflections on women in engineering, and (2) to make recommendations tobetter integrate women into all engineering disciplines. The work was presented at the 1999ASEE meeting (Cauble et al., 1999) and the full study was published in 2000 (Cauble et al.,2000).In 2005, we decided to re-survey the same population with a largely similar instrument

Conference Session

Women Faculty Issues and NSF's ADVANCE program

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jana Renner Martinez, University of Texas-El Paso; Evelyn Posey, University of Texas-El Paso

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

colleagues; lack of support from peers and administration;3,6,7,11 and dual careersituations where the spouse did not find work.7 Family issues also derail women, as they try totime additions to the family and tenure. In Sue Rosser’s study of academic women’s struggles,over 60 percent of women interviewed reported that balancing their career and family was aconcern.11The National Science Foundation funds the ADVANCE Institutional Transformation for FacultyDiversity program with the goal of increasing the representation of women in academic scienceand engineering careers. At the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), the ADVANCE missionis twofold: 1) to value a talented, diverse faculty and recognize that a collegial, productiveenvironment can be

Conference Session

Women Faculty Issues and NSF's ADVANCE program

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Catherine Pieronek, University of Notre Dame

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjectedto discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance .. . .”1 As legislation enacted pursuant to congressional authority granted by the Spending Clauseof the United States Constitution,2 the statute forms a contract between the federal governmentand the federal funding recipient. The terms of that contract condition the grant of federal funds Page 11.1066.2on the funding recipient’s promise not to discriminate on the basis of gender. Thus, unlike otheranti-discrimination laws such as the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which bansoutright

Conference Session

Using Teams, Seminars & Research Opportunities for Retention

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Christine Hailey, Utah State University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

presented.IntroductionSeveral engineering programs offer a seminar for female students as a retention strategy.Typically there are two goals for the seminar: inform female students about the many careeropportunities available with a degree in engineering, and develop an encouraging, supportivecommunity for the students.1-3 The first goal is accomplished by providing a variety of speakerswho share their experiences and offer advice about the many areas and career paths available inengineering. The second goal is accomplished through small group discussions where topicssuch as “how to get academic help,” “homesickness,” and “what to do and where to go in town:fun things to do” are discussed.4 In some programs, field trips to local companies that employengineers are also

Conference Session

Women & New Faculty Development

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Eve Riskin, University of Washington; Kate Quinn, University of Washington; Joyce Yen, University of Washington

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

Society for Engineering Education, 2006 DEMYSTIFYING FAMILY-FRIENDLY POLICIES FOR FACULTY: RESOURCES FOR DEPARTMENT CHAIRSIntroductionFamily-friendly policies for faculty are no longer the exception, but rather are becoming thenorm on many campuses. Yet, the existence of such policies is not enough to bring about acultural change. In addition to changes in policies, institutional transformation requires asignificant amount of change in attitudes and practices throughout the university community. Atop-down policy change can rarely transform an institution. Rather, the success of institutionalchange hinges largely on the extent to which (attitudinal and practical) change occurs at theacademic department level.1, 2 Department

Conference Session

K-12 Programs for Recruiting Women

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Pat Pyke, Boise State University; Leandra Aburusa-Lete, Boise State University; Christa Budinoff, Visioneering LLC; Janet Callahan; Michael Luque, Boise School District; Cheryl Schrader, Boise State University; Michelle Taylor, Micron Technology, Inc.

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

Education. She taught in several schools before starting employment with Page 11.1448.1 Micron Technology as a Training Specialist and is now in the K-12 outreach.© American Society for Engineering Education, 2006 Where the Girls Are: Applying an Integrated Marketing Approach to Attract Girls into Engineering ProgramsAbstractThe steady national decline in women engineering students persists despite a plethora ofprograms and camps at engineering colleges around the country aimed at attracting girls intoengineering and technical fields.1 Discussions about this decline often suggest that influentialcultural

Conference Session

International and Sustainability Perspectives and Women in Engineering

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Angela Bielefeldt, University of Colorado-Boulder

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

servesociety were made known more women might enter engineering as a major in college andeventually as a profession.BackgroundAfter gains in the representation of women graduating with engineering degrees from around1990 to 2000, more recently these numbers have been declining in the US and Canada1(http://www.ccpe.ca/e/prog_women_1.cfm). Based on U.S. data from a variety of sources, thepercentage of bachelor’s degrees in engineering that were awarded to women has been fairlyconstant at about 20-21% from 1999 through 2004 (see Figure 1)2,3,4,5. The representation ofwomen in engineering varies significantly by major, with 40.6, 36.5, 23.1, and 13.7% ofenvironmental, chemical, civil, and mechanical engineering bachelor’s degrees awarded towomen in 20043

Conference Session

K-12 Programs for Recruiting Women

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ann Beheler, Collin County Community College

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

represented in information technology (IT) careers. The researcher for this paper isthe Primary Investigator (PI) for the grant and is ultimately held responsible for achieving the Page 11.666.2goals set forth in the grant objectives. This paper focuses on the details of a recruitment eventfor girls to attract them into the convergence technology field. The design of the event is basedon current scholarly literature regarding best practices, and the goal of this paper is to assist otherprograms these types of recruitment events.Rationale for The Event Based on the work of Durkheim6, Toffler9, and Belenky et al.1, it seems reasonable thatsociety

Conference Session

Climate Issues for Women Students

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Heidi Steinhauer, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Daytona Beach; Lisa Davids, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Daytona Beach; Darris White, Embry Riddle Aeronautical University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

. Since the MechanicalEngineering program is new, accepting students for the first time in Fall 2005, an Page 11.50.2opportunity exists to create an inviting culture for women within the program from theonset. The women’s mini-baja team is one of hopefully many initiatives that will beimplemented over the next few years to attract women and minorities to the engineeringfield.Each year the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) sponsors several studentcompetitions including the SAE mini-baja series which students design and build an off-road car, shown in figure 1. The SAE Mini-Baja project was chosen as the basis for thisdiversity study for several

Conference Session

Climate Issues for Women Students

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Rose Mary Cordova-Wentling, University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign; Cristina Camacho, University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

Enterprise Systems Engineering at the University of Illinois. Her research interests relate to the career development of women in engineering and human behavior in engineering. Page 11.1454.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2006 1 Women Engineers: Factors and Obstacles Related to the Pursuit of a Degree in Engineering AbstractResearch on women in engineering confirms the presence of gender barriers that affect therecruitment and retention of women

Conference Session

Climate Issues for Women Students

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Elizabeth Creamer, Virginia Tech; Soyoung Lee, Virginia Tech; Peggy Meszaros

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

in the final statistical analysis were: (a) parents’opinions or views about the importance of a career and how to pursue information about careeroptions, (b) information orientation features (decision orientation, receptivity, informationsources, and information credibility), (c) stereotypical and positive attitudes about the attributesof toward IT workers (such as that they are hardworking, smart, and creative, or anti-socialloners, geeks, and males), (d) frequency and type of computer use, and (e) IT career interest andchoice. Response options were: disagree (1), slightly disagree (2), slightly agree (3), and agree(4). All measures were coded such that the higher the value, the more positive the interpretation.Items about general

Conference Session

Preventing Marginalization of Underrepresented Students on Teams

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Paige Smith, University of Maryland-College Park; Linda Schmidt, University of Maryland-College Park; Patricia F. Mead; Stephanie Adams

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

Conference Session

Women Faculty Issues and NSF's ADVANCE program

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Cheryl Schrader, Boise State University; Janet Callahan; Amy Moll, Boise State University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

femalescience and engineering faculty and describe what has led not only to successful searches butalso to unsuccessful ones. In this way changes in policies, procedures and perceptions duringfaculty recruitment are focused most effectively.IntroductionA panel discussion on Professional Development and Women Faculty was held in June 2005 atthe American Society for Engineering Education annual conference in Portland.1 Engineeringfaculty panelists, including the authors, shared how they as women navigated pathways insuccessful academic careers. During the discussion period, a young woman from the audiencedeclared, “I chose to have a family instead.” Implicit in her remarks was the presumption that thebarriers and drawbacks of academic tenure outweigh the

Conference Session

International and Sustainability Perspectives and Women in Engineering

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mike Murphy; Cecilia Chan, Dublin Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

Page 11.1456.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2006Women, Engineering and Research – providing choice and balance? Women researchers in engineering remain a minority in both Higher Education and dAbstract“Research cannot reach its full potential when half the population is excluded from itsactivities”1. Women researchers in engineering remain a minority in both HigherEducation and industry in Ireland. Recent statistics of women graduating in science andengineering indicated an increase (a slow increase) but the numbers moving through tocompletion of PhD and careers in academia or industry remain quite low. Statistics onwomen in professorial and senior positions within the engineering sector also remainslow.The educated workforce

Conference Session

Women Faculty Issues and NSF's ADVANCE program

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Lisa Aultman-Hall, University of Connecticut; Britt Holmen, University of Connecticut

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

engineering leadership –as managers, executives and deans – will result in benefits to society and industry,a more female-friendly culture in undergraduate engineering programs, andgreater success at the high school levels in encouraging and retaining femalestudents in science and math. Although many organizations have women inengineering programs, female engineering managers and female university facultyare missing among the target groups for these programs. A recent Summit hostedat the University of Connecticut by the Women in Engineering LeadershipInstitute (WELI) (www.weli.eng.iastate.edu) had the following underlyingmotivations: (1) A network of diverse leaders is essential to the future of the engineering profession. The solutions for

Conference Session

1st Year Retention Programs for Women Students

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Rachelle Reisberg, Northeastern University; Amanda Funai, University of Michigan; Allison Interrante, Northeastern University; Sara Wadia-Fascetti, Northeastern University; Bala Maheswaran, Northeastern University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

futureplans. Page 11.354.2BackgroundDespite consistent effort, interest among and representation in engineering for women is stillmuch smaller than in society at large.1, 2 Once women matriculate at the university, the need forretention among women is still an important factor in increasing the number of women inengineering and technical professions.3 Research has shown that women tend to drop out ofengineering earlier and with higher GPA’s than men, suggesting a lack of support andconfidence. The crucial year appears to be the freshman year when the largest drop inengineering students is seen.4Physics has particularly been a struggling point for women

Conference Session

Using Teams, Seminars & Research Opportunities for Retention

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Harriet Hartman, Rowan University; Moshe Hartman, Retired

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

Department of Sociology.IntroductionSince 2000, the Accrediting Board of Engineering and Technology has emphasized as one of its11 program outcomes in Criteria 3 the importance for engineering students to master “an abilityto function on multi-disciplinary teams”1 and hence the need to integrate teambuilding skills intothe undergraduate engineering curriculum. This need has arisen because of changes in theworkplace, which now develops engineers into specializations, and requires collaborationbetween specialists and with non-engineers for product planning, design, and completion.Cutting edge engineering programs integrate teambuilding skills and experience into theircurriculum (see, for example, www.foundationcoalition.org).As Rosser2 notes, there

Conference Session

1st Year Retention Programs for Women Students

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Whitney Edmister, Virginia Tech; Amanda Martin, Virginia Tech; Bevlee Watford, Virginia Tech

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

Hypatia program. Bothprograms help women in engineering to explore critical issues surrounding women's roles inpredominately male fields.For the first-year seminar course, the students are divided into two sections of thirty-threestudents. It has been found that there is more student interaction in smaller class sizes. Onesection meets on Monday, and the other section meets on Wednesday. On Thursdays, the entiregroup meets as one with the Galileo students. Galileo is the male counterpart to the first-yearHypatia program and is also offered through the CEED office. Each class is 75 minutes inlength. Topics covered in the first-year seminar course can be found in Table 1.As the course syllabus states, the course is designed to assist the students

Conference Session

International and Sustainability Perspectives and Women in Engineering

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Nina Dahlmann, Technische Universitat Berlin, Inst. f. Mathematik; Sabina Jeschke, Technische Universitat Berlin, Inst. f. Mathematik; Christian Thomsen, Technische Universitat Berlin; Marc Wilke, Technische Universitat Berlin

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

: prejudice and the perceivedtechnocratic image are so deeply rooted that modifications and modernizations are often barelynoticed. Modernization of these studies should therefore be accompanied by the development ofcompletely new models for technology-oriented studies explicitly addressing the interests ofwomen, in particular concerning inter- and multidisciplinary aspects.The project GENESIS, located at Technische Universität Berlin, funded by the European SocialFund, is developing several models of co-educative, gender-sensitive model-courses within thethree major areas of natural sciences, computer sciences and engineering. These courses andtheir underlying concepts will be presented in this talk.1. Introduction: The Image of Technological

Conference Session

Using Teams, Seminars & Research Opportunities for Retention

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

De'Jeune Antoine, Xavier University of Louisiana; Mica Hutchison, Purdue University; Deborah Follman, Purdue University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

) were male; 20% (n=33) were minorities (African American, Native American, andHispanic American) and 80% (n=128) were Caucasian. While the majority of the participants(85%, n=137) were students enrolled at the host institution, fifteen percent (n=24) of theparticipants visited the program from other institutions. Table 1 depicts the demographics for the40 students that made up the sample population for this study. Table 1. Demographics of sample population. Men Women # in % of # in % of Sample Sample Sample Sample Caucasian 16

Conference Session

K-12 Programs for Recruiting Women

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jan DeWaters, Clarkson University; Susan Powers, Clarkson University; Mary Graham, Clarkson University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

participation in the PIE program - through theircontact with the women engineering students, the breath of exposure to professional women ingeneral, and the experience of using math and science to solve a meaningful problem.IntroductionThe underrepresentation of women and minorities in engineering, science and technical (SET)fields is well documented.[1-5] Women and minorities (both sexes) comprise about two thirds ofthe entire U.S. workforce, but account for only 25 percent of the technical workforce,[2] whileminority and non-minority females represent a mere16 to 17 percent of the SET workforce.[6]Trends in the composition of the U.S. workforce show a steady decline of white malerepresentation and an increase in female and minorities, yet

Conference Session

Climate Issues for Women Students

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Elizabeth Litzler, University of Washington; Sheila Edwards Lange, University of Washington

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

undergraduate and graduate students. The researchpresented here uses an observation about the context of education to frame the research project;and locates the project within the realm of previous research on educational climate. This projecttests the null hypothesis that the context of education does not matter for women’s experience ofclimate. Figure 1 indicates the conceptual framework utilized by this research. The mainvariables of interest are in a bold font.Figure 1. Conceptual Framework of Research Classroom Experiences Laboratory Experiences Relationship with Faculty Climate Retention Professional Development Work/Family BalanceThe contexts in which students are educated are different at the undergraduate and

Conference Session

K-12 Programs for Recruiting Women

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Firouzeh Keshmiri, Milwaukee School of Engineering; Ann Bloor, Milwaukee School of Engineering; Mary Jo Wellenstein, Milwaukee School of Engineering

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

impact on the vitality of the ruralcommunities.ReferencesAAUW Educational Foundation, Under the Microscope, Washington, D.C., March 2004Andrews, Christine, L., McCum, Sharon, Wilkens, Leslie, Women in Technology (WIT): AParadigm for Working Toward Systemic Change in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math(STEM) Education and Employment, IWPR 2003 Conference, Washington, D.C., June 2003Beeson, Elizabeth, Strange, Marty, Why Rural Matters 2003: The Continuing Need for EveryState to Take Action on Rural Education, Journal of Research in Rural Education, Spring 2003,Vo. 18, No. 1. 3-16Congressional Commission on the Advancement of Women and Minorities in Science,Engineering and Technology Development, Land of Plenty: Diversity as America’s

Conference Session

Using Teams, Seminars & Research Opportunities for Retention

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Dawn Farver, University of Arkansas; Carol Gattis, University of Arkansas

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

contact between mentor and mentee occur before classes start in the fall.IntroductionWomen have comprised more than 50% of the enrollment in four-year colleges throughout theUnited States since 1978, and yet women only comprised 20.3% of total undergraduateenrollment in engineering programs in 2003-2004 1. In 2001, women earned 57.4% of allbachelor’s degrees in the U.S, but only 20.1% of engineering degrees 2. Our goal is to retain asmany of the women who enroll in engineering as possible since our starting numbers arecurrently not high. Mentoring programs provide a way to help retain these students through Page 11.449.2mechanisms that benefit the

Conference Session

Women Faculty Issues and NSF's ADVANCE program

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Barb Silver, University of Rhode Island; G. Boudreaux-Bartels, University of Rhode Island; Helen Mederer, University of Rhode Island; Lynn Pasquerella, University of Rhode Island; Joan Peckham, University of Rhode Island; Mercedes River-Hudec, University of Rhode Island; Karen Wishner, University of Rhode Island

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

associate professors, and 18% of assistant professors.[1]In addition to recruitment barriers, retention and advancement provide additional obstacles.Reduced tenure rates, slower promotion rates, inflexible and demanding work schedules thatmake balancing work and family difficult, heavy service and teaching loads, and a male-dominated, often hostile work climate that does not validate the needs or contributions of womenparticipants all contribute to a higher attrition rate[2] – [5] for women than for men STEM faculty.The University of Rhode Island was representative of these trends until a series of events,culminating in the activities of the NSF ADVANCE program, provided avenues for positivechange in the College of Engineering, which now serves as

Conference Session

Knowing Our Students I

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Christina Vogt, National Academy of Engineering

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

engineering programs before graduation.1 Severalreasons have been posited such as attrition resulting from inadequate academic support, or fromlowered student confidence due to estrangement from faculty members.3,4 For example, in fieldssuch as engineering and computer science, students have commented on the inaccessible orunapproachable nature of faculty. To evaluate this previous body of research, this study gathereddata across four research universities. Using structural equation modeling, it measuredenvironmental effects, i.e., academic integration or faculty distance on a) self-efficacy, b)academic confidence and c) self-regulated learning behaviors, and d) GPA. Results showed thatfaculty distance lowered self-efficacy, academic confidence and

Conference Session

1st Year Retention Programs for Women Students

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Susan Donohue, University of Virginia; Carolyn Vallas, University of Virginia

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

percentage of female undergraduate students among the variousschools and programs at the University. Figure 1 in Appendix A is a graphical representation ofthe enrollment figures for female undergraduate students from the schools and programs at UVafrom 1994 to 2005, providing an efficient means of portraying these trends.1 The undergraduateenrollment percentages are mirrored in the female graduate engineering student population at theUniversity as well as at many other American universities.2, 3 Figure 2 in Appendix A is thegraduate counterpart to Figure 1.To combat these trends, CDE proposed the creation of the Women’s Initiative in 2004 to SEASleadership. The Women’s Initiative, modeled after various Women in Engineering (WIE) andWomen in Science