Women are underrepresented in STEM units in Dayton academic institutions, as they are nationwide. Four institutions in the Dayton region with diverse histories, missions and demographics form the LEADER consortium for the purpose of Launching Equity in the Academy across the Dayton Entrepreneurial Region. The institutions include a public doctoral university (Wright State University, host institution), a private Catholic institution (University of Dayton), a minority-serving public institution (Central State University) and a federal graduate institution (Air Force Institute of Technology). All are located in close proximity and collaborate routinely on STEM initiatives. They also share a commitment to regional STEM education, pipeline, and economic development, and recognition that inclusiveness, including directed efforts to recruit and support women in STEM, is a necessary component of that mission. Our ADVANCE collaborative will address these issues through a unique combination of inter-institutional coordination and approaches drawn from social and organizational psychology to improve climate and thereby transform the individual participating institutions.
Intellectual Merit: The underrepresentation of women among academic STEM faculties reflects gender disparities in recruitment, support, and promotion. Underlying the persistence of these problems are features of institutional climate that are rooted in the often nonconscious attitudes and behaviors of individuals. Thus, progress toward gender equity in the STEM academy requires transformation of institutional structures and processes, and transformation of climate. The LEADER consortium will implement models of social/organizational psychology based on gender schemas, persuasion theory, and social contracts, to transform institutional climate in support of STEM women. We will facilitate implementation of strategies proven in prior ADVANCE initiatives to enhance recruitment, retention and advancement of tenure-track STEM women. Implementation of these initiatives within a framework of inter-institutional accountability and administrative architecture (the LEADER Consortium) will catalyze transformation of climate within institutions, thus creating a sustainable women-friendly STEM culture within a region built upon a legacy of STEM innovation. The specific aims of LEADER are: (a) to conduct a comparative analysis of climate for STEM women across the institutions and thereby identify best practices related to recruitment, retention, and advancement; (b) to initiate gender schema education and a campaign based on persuasion theory that will promote new norms of expectation and thereby facilitate implementation of those best practices; and (c) to implement social contracts across the consortium that promote transparency and accountability for transformation of climate, leading to recruitment, promotion and success of STEM women. Implementation and Management: Social science research will be undertaken by a social psychologist and a philosopher working in the area of moral psychology and gender theory. Initially climate will be compared across the institutions to inform climate initiatives. At the unit and institutional levels, chairs and faculty equity advisors will implement proposed initiatives with the assistance of a centralized LEADER administrative office. Accountability for achieving benchmarks in recruitment and advancement of women will be centrally monitored using accepted metrics, formative and summative evaluation, and continuous improvement under the direction of the LEADER Council (composed of representatives from each institution) and with external oversight from an Advisory Board.
Broader Impacts: The inter-institutional collaboration and accountability should significantly increase retention and advancement of women in the STEM academy. More broadly, our ADVANCE program is designed to promote equity and that model can be applied to diverse target populations. The consortium includes an HBCU (Central State) and an institution committed to accessibility for the disabled (Wright State); as such, this project should promote significant gains in these two demographic groups within the community of STEM women. Our selection of the acronym "LEADER" recognizes this transferability; advancement of STEM women in the Dayton region today will provide leadership, by example, for efforts toward equity within the academy.
