A recent survey revealed that while 76 percent of the participating students felt they had been impeded, because of their gender, in the pursuit of their scientific degrees and careers, 61 percent reported that the AWIS mentoring program had helped them address those barriers.
Although most scientists do not have the financial resources to initiate large-scale mentoring programs, there is much that individuals--men as well as women--can do within their own institutions to encourage women scientists at all stages of their careers. Here are a few suggestions:
Conference invitations are essential to career development and growth. AWIS has found that there is a strong correlation between the presence of women on invitational committees and the number of women invited to speak at special occasions. At one series of national ecological conferences, when there was at least one woman on the invitational committee, approximately 23 percent of the scientists invited to ...
