The University of Dayton is one of four universities in the region that have joined together to improve the representation of women in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and math) through a grant awarded by the National Science Foundation.
Wright State University, the Air Force Institute of Technology, Central State University and UD have formed the Launching Equity in the Academy across the Dayton Entrepreneurial Region (LEADER) consortium. These institutions will share $2.86 million from the NSF ADVANCE grant to recruit, retain and promote women in STEM.
The five-year program will begin with an assessment of the current climates for women at each institution. From there, initiatives have been developed to improve those climates at the individual, departmental and institutional levels.
Dr. Peggy DesAutels, a philosophy professor at UD, has gender research experience and will lead the effort with STEM faculty on gender schema education. People all have a way of thinking, or a schema, when it comes to gender. The ultimate goal is to adjust any biases faculty may have within those schemas, and identifying and acknowledging them – what DesAutels aims to do – is the necessary first step.
A second initiative focuses on that active change in thinking, an effort that will be led by Dr. Tamera Schneider, a psychology professor at Wright State. She will also be working with faculty, using persuasion theory to counteract any negative gender schemas that prevent women from advancing in the academy.
Along with DesAutels and Schneider, the project’s partners include David Goldstein at Wright State; Joseph Saliba, Malcolm Daniels, and Jayne Robinson at UD; Kimberly Kendricks at Central State; and Heidi Ries at AFIT.
Each institution will utilize ongoing efforts to hire more STEM women, working with diversity directors to focus on all aspects of the hiring process and implementing social contracts to openly track progress. STEM departments will also provide equity advisors and mentors to create a more comfortable environment for faculty, according to biology department chair Dr. Jayne Robinson.
Robinson also said the attractiveness of the region and the participating institutions’ diversity will hopefully be additional selling points to bring more STEM women and their families to the area.
“We live in a region that is very family-friendly and has a lot of resources,” Robinson said. “We’re hoping this combination of a critical mass of STEM professionals in the area as well as the cultural and environmental landscape will draw career couples.”