New NSF Programs For Women Set Ambitious Goals, Backed By Sharp Increase In Project Appropriations

National Science Foundation officials have set an ambitious goal for the agency and the scientific community--to make women an equal part of the United States scientific work force by the turn of the century. For its role in the effort, NSF has appropriated $7 million in each of the last two fiscal years, toward expanding its programs to train, encourage, and retain women in science. The funding figures, which officials hope to maintain in the current budget process, represent a 200 percent increase over FY 1993 outlays for these initiatives. "Part of our mission at NSF is to develop the talent in science and math," says Anne Petersen, who was sworn in as deputy director of NSF in September. "There is a real concern that we are losing a valuable national resource--by neglecting women we are ignoring half of all possible talent." Indeed, NSF's own statistics bear out the formidable task ahead: As of 1988, for instance, women made up less than 15 percent of the total number of employees in science and engineering in the U.S., a figure representing only a 12 percent growth rate since 1978 ("Women and minorities in science and engineering: an update," NSF 92-303, January 1992). Although NSF has always stated a commitment to educate and encourage women in science careers, some critics have maintained that it has not been successful over the years. But the funding infusion is causing some who have questioned the agency's commitment to promoting women in science to reassess their views. For instance, in a letter to The Scientist (May 16, 1994, page 13), Judith Weis, a biology professor at Rutgers University, charged that in 1989 NSF had spent only $150,000 overall on projects focusing on women in science, while $5.7 million had gone toward similar programs for minorities. Jane Daniels does not directly dispute the letter's allegations, but contended in a subsequent letter to The Scientist (July 25, 1994, page 13) that Weis's information is outdated. Daniels, director of the women in engineering program at Purdue University, is former senior program officer for NSF's Programs for Women and Girls (PWG), a component of NSF's human resource development division, that was established in 1993 to administer the agency's initiatives toward advancing scientific opportunities for women. Daniels points to a number of PWG grants programs as evidence that the agency has stepped up its efforts. Currently there are three separate competitive grants programs--each tackling the issue of underrepresentation from a different perspective: Experimental Projects for Women and Girls (EPWG). These three-year grants are intended to induce long-term changes in "academic, social, and scientific climates"--for example, in classrooms, laboratories, departments, and organizations. Model Projects for Women and Girls (MPWG). MPWGs are one-year grants designed to produce short-term, immediate results through "innovative, highly focused activities which improve the access of women and girls" in science and math education and/or careers. Information Dissemination Activities (IDA). These grants are intended to produce information that improves "the participation of or reduce the barriers to girls and women" in science and math, as well as for distributing such information among teachers, administrators, and the general public. Last year, more than half of the $7 million PWG program funds, about $4 million, was channeled to EPWG initiatives; model projects received $1.8 million; and IDA efforts got $165,000. The remaining funding went to some previously existing projects and special projects, and are granted on a noncompetitive, discretionary basis. In addition to the specific issues or aims of the grant efforts, all of the projects contain some degree of research and evaluation of the issues and track constituencies affected by reduced opportunities for women. "I have been critical in the past when the money for women's programs was minuscule in comparison to that allotted to other minorities," Weis says. But the current commitment, she concedes, "sounds like a step in the right direction." "Its not that NSF hasn't paid attention to the issue of the underrepresentation of women in the past, but it has been quite limited," adds Susan Bailey, a social sciences researcher who is executive director of the Center for Research on Women at Wellesley College. While she states that these new grants "are somewhat overdue, the increased attention, funding, and visibility they have given the issue is a very positive thing." "The programs cover a very large range of projects--targeting everyone from kindergarten through faculty," notes Sue Rosser, a professor of family studies and preventive medicine on leave from the University of South Carolina, who has succeeded Daniels at PWG. "Some deal with basic research on the issue, while others involve curriculum development, for example." According to NSF officials, one point brought out strongly thus far in various projects is that a major factor influencing the educational and career decisions of women and girls has been the intellectual and social climate in which they learn and work. Girls routinely underestimate their abilities in such subjects as physics and mathematics, traditionally viewed as more "male" oriented, they say. These attitudes were evident among the students in an EPWG pilot initiative at the State University of New York at Stony Brook--the Women In Science Experimental (WISE) project--designed to encourage highschool and entering undergraduates to take up science. "Every girl placed herself in lower levels of calculus than she had shown an aptitude for," recounts Wendy Katkin, principal investigator for the project. Even in the life sciences, where there has been the maximum growth in terms of women--they now account for 40 percent of the total according to Science & Engineering Indicators--1993 (Washington, D.C., National Science Board, page 79)--Petersen points out that while "equal numbers of men and women are likely to enroll for classes at the undergraduate levels, the gap [in numbers of men and women moving on in science] widens the higher you go." It was to address these systemic issues that the experimental projects were begun, stresses Daniels, who was involved in reviewing the first round of proposals. "Here we are trying to focus on the entire structure rather than work with a deficit model that asks, 'What's wrong with the girls?' Instead we would focus on the educators and see if how they teach is equitable" A total of 11 experimental projects were initiated in 1994, and nine more have been approved for 1995. Each of these projects, explains Rosser, "involves multiple players to look into and resolve climate issues as to why women are not encouraged to get into and stay in science." For example, in Project WISE at Stony Brook, there is a high-school component of 30 participating high school students from six different schools, in addition to a 35-student college-level program.The girls are encouraged and guided in the pursuit of science through various classroom, laboratory, and counseling sessions. Other institutions in the region, such as Brookhaven National Laboratory and the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, are also participating in the project, providing facilities and instructors for the high school students to conduct research projects. "We intend to start a new block of students every year," projects principal investigator Katkin. "Hopefully the project will continue beyond the three years allotted by NSF." The response from the institutions has been very encouraging, she adds: "Both Brookhaven and Cold Spring Harbor have been extremely supportive." By targeting students at the high-school and undergraduate years, these programs aim to build and nourish a pipeline of women in the sciences, math, and engineering, NSF officials explain. Already, observes Daniels, "in fields like medicine and pharmacy there is something approaching equity at the educational levels. It will be a while before this translates into the work force, however." In contrast to the long-term, broad-based EPWG projects, the MPWG initiatives are "more focused, addressing specific problems [of underrepresentation], and are of shorter duration," explains PWG's Rosser. A project at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, for instance, is specifically aimed at recruiting undergraduate women into computer science. Faculty and computing professionals act as mentors to undergraduate women, develop cooperative education work assignments, and recruit sophomores to computer science as a major. In addition, the project conducts workshops for computer-science faculty and business representatives on gender-related issues that impact careers. An approach to attracting women to science that worked over the past two years for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), became the basis for a larger MPWG grant, says Margaret E. Tunstall, co-project manager for Girls and Science: Link Up with the Future. A major component of this involves linking African American and Hispanic school girls, ages 5 to 17, with college science majors as mentors and role models. "Each of these mentors is a young person that the girls can identify with; they can see that she is not a 'dork' but an intelligent and fun person who likes to do other things, as well." In addition, AAAS conducts training at local institutions for community leaders to learn how to conduct science activities for the girls. Information-dissemination activities under PWG include a one-day career-advisement conference put on by the New York Academy of Sciences for "re-entry" of women in the physical sciences, mathematics, computer sciences, and engineering. In addition to advice, the conference will establish mentoring and peer-group networks, and form a quarterly news-letter. A science camp to train parents and teachers about encouraging girls to participate in science will be conducted by Kieve Affective Education of Nobleboro, Maine. The initiative will train adult "dissem- ination leaders" to return to their communities "prepared to be advocates for gender equity and experimental education in science." A three-year, nearly $1.5 million special PWG project awarded to AAAS, Collaboration for Equity, would "make equity for girls and women, of all colors, abilities, and backgrounds, a central rather than marginal consideration in the efforts to reform math and science education." A series of efforts to address issues in gender, racial/ethnic, and disability equity would lead to workshop curricula and support for "systemic reform" initiatives. More information on all these programs can be obtained by contacting: Programs for Women and Girls, National Science Foundation, 4201 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, Va. 22230; (703) 306-1637. E-mail (via Internet):hrdwomen@nsf.gov

New NSF Programs For Women Set Ambitious Goals, Backed By Sharp Increase In Project Appropriations

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