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WiE Newsletter - October 2021 - ISSUE 23
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Front and Center News from the Director
The semester is off and running, and it’s full steam ahead. The University has strict COVID practices - required vaccinations, biweekly testing, and masks required indoors. My ad hoc evaluation is that the GW community is adhering to the rules. The GW dashboard notes that 99% of the GW community has been vaccinated.
In this stable environment, the Center has been very active. We modified the traditional Welcome Breakfast for incoming graduate students to be a virtual event. All graduate students arriving in Fall 2020 and 2021 were invited to a panel discussion featuring faculty from every SEAS discipline: Professors Gina Adam, Kinga Dobolyi, Emilia Entcheva, Saniya LeBlanc, Kim Roddis, Rumana Riffat and Zoe Szajnfarber. These accomplished women talked about their research and their interactions with students in the classroom and lab, and gave incoming graduate students advice on how to make the most of their educational opportunities. Also in September, WiE held the semi-annual Advisory Board meeting, with a combined attendance of both internal and external WiE Boards. One important topic we discussed was fundraising (see detail and donation link below), which all who believe in the mission of WiE may want to learn about. While initial funding for the Center was provided through alumni contributions and the Dean's office, it is now prudent to augment that, to continue the positive impacts to the lives of female students, faculty, alumni and staff that we have achieved over the past three years.
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WiE crowdfunding campaign - why and howYour support goes a long way to inspire women engineers!
GW is holding a crowdfunding campaign to raise and match funds for the Center. We are asking all to support the Center with a donation as small as $1 and more, at your own comfort level. Your contribution will bolster continuation and expansion of many activities!
ENGINEERING ROLE MODELS
GW female engineer role models describing their technological and research accomplishments, as well as their experiences, challenges and successes.
CAREER HELP
MENTORINGThe WiE Mentor Matching Program and guidance tools, providing opportunities for alumni to mentor students and students to mentor their peers - 23 matchups since inception.
FUN
GRANTS & SCHOLARSHIPS
TRAININGDevelopment of diversity, equity and inclusion tools, such as techniques for the GW faculty search committee to hire and promote more female faculty, and white papers explaining unconscious bias and micro-aggression.
INFORMATION & RESEARCHThe WiE Monthly newsletter, reaching 1,100+ students, faculty members and alumni, provides information and analysis on articles, research, events and resources.
NETWORKING
Engagement and joint activities across SEAS and GW with other groups such as the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), the Offices of both Undergraduate and Graduate Admissions and Student Services, and the Cyber Security and Privacy Research Institute (CSPRI).
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A deeper look at female faculty in SEAS
During the WiE Board Meeting, we discussed the robust numbers of undergraduate and graduate women in SEAS. A question that came up was “How about the faculty?” And it was pointed out that in addition to numbers of faculty or percentages of the whole, it is important to report on where, across the levels of faculty, these women can be found.
It is exciting to report as of this Fall, 20% of SEAS professors, 20% of the associate professors, and over 27% of the assistant professors are women. In addition,of the three associate deans, two are women. How does this compare to the national average? While our numbers are strong, we have plenty of room for improvement. A report from the Society of Women Engineers based on ASEE data shows these ratios of female to male faculty from 2019.
The SEAS hiring program for this academic year is small, but we want to be sure that each Search Committee has every opportunity to bring a highly qualified, diverse group of individuals to campus for interviews and eventual hire. The Center has numerous tools and white papers that have been made available to the Search Committee to help broaden the search pool, conduct appropriate interviews, and read letters of reference with a better understanding of the differences that often occur between female and male candidates. The tools can also be found on our website.
Stay safe, and enjoy the new normal!
Shelly Heller
WiE Director
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Mentors and mentees! Apply todayThe WiE mentorship program matches mentors and mentees by engineering discipline for best results.
MENTEES: If you are in Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, Systems Engineering, or Civil and Environmental Engineering, and would like a mentor, please apply ASAP.
MENTORS: If you are in Computer Science or Biomedical Engineering, and would like to mentor a student in your discipline, please apply ASAP.
The program is flexible, enabling each mentoring pair to agree on what works best for them. For example, last year most were virtual, one or two face-to-face. Some met biweekly or monthly, others emailed check-ins to decide on issues to discuss.
WiE offers training materials and experience to support a meaningful experience for both mentors and mentees. We need mentors from all areas of engineering as well as all levels of career. Yes, recent alumni can (and should) be mentors.
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Learn from students about their researchThinking of getting involved in research but not sure how – or even why? Join this event as we learn from GW engineering students about their research experience, how it has impacted them, and how they see themselves growing as students, as researchers, and as practitioners in their chosen fields.
- Moderated by: Bengisu Sisik
- Rachel Gray
- Elena Korkes
- Chandraman Patil
The webinar will be held Wednesday, October 13 at 12 pm ET (see Zoom details below).
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Engineering isn't just technicalJoin Dr. Lorrie Faith Cranor, master quilter, photographer, computer scientist, entrepreneur, director of CyLab Usable Privacy and Security Laboratory, distinguished Carnegie Mellon University professor, and more, as she shares her holistic approach to life, academia, industry and social activism. Engineering students have a lot to learn! But it doesn't all have to be books, lectures and labs. Dr. Lorrie Faith Cranor is living proof of a career that is so much more. Tap into your creative side as Dr. Cranor highlights her parallel journeys spanning academia, industry, government service, entrepreneurship, research, writing, thought leadership, security and privacy expert, quilting, yoga, soccer, music and motherhood.
The webinar will be held Friday, November 19 at 12:00 pm ET (see Zoom link below)
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What We Are Reading
With a flood of interesting papers, podcasts and webinars this Fall, it has been hard to keep up!
Many discussions have focused on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on academic women of childbearing age; it seems this demographic segment is frequently not included in academia’s plans to address diversity, equity and inclusion, especially in seeking career advancement.
In this article titled "The Quiet Crisis of Parents on the Tenure Track" (The Chronicle of Higher Education), the authors review the family leave and medical leave act (FMLA) and other supports for women. "Academic parents must also grapple with the culture of academe, which remains hostile to family life," the article states. Jill Lepore (Harvard professor and my favorite Podcaster for The Last Archive) is quoted: "Academic life, at least as I’ve experienced it, still rests on a fantasy that the faculty are wealthy gentleman-scholars who would enjoy sipping sherry and smoking a pipe at 7 p.m. with other gentleman-scholars while the womenfolk raise their sons and heirs or something." The article continues: "Having children on the tenure track makes it hard to sustain the appearance of scholarly single-mindedness, unencumbered by the demands of the body and utterly devoted to the job.”
Continuing a focus on gender gap, Derek Thompson of The Atlantic writes in his article "Colleges Have a Guy Problem," that “American colleges and universities now enroll roughly six women for every four men. This is the largest female-male gender gap in the history of higher education, and it’s getting wider.” However, he writes, “Education experts and historians aren’t remotely surprised. Women in the United States have earned more bachelor’s degrees than men every year since the mid-1980s – every year, in other words, that I’ve been alive. This particular gender gap hasn’t been breaking news for about 40 years.” Thompson continues, “The imbalance reveals a genuine shift in how men participate in education, the economy, and society. The world has changed dramatically, but the ideology of masculinity isn’t changing fast enough to keep up.”
I’d like to leave this column on a positive note about one action we can take to address the challenges and opportunities for women in engineering (for the research on this, check out this article from the MIT Press titled "The gender gap in highly prestigious international research awards, 2001-2020"). That is to encourage and mentor our colleagues as they seek to publish in respected journals and submit competitive proposals for funding. Informally or formally, offer a hand in reviewing their material before submission or putting them in contact with someone who can advise them. You can also help by nominating your colleagues for awards. Use your network.
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