This project will support efforts to plan, conduct and evaluate outcomes for a three-day symposium, WEBS: Women Evolving Biological Science, aimed at issues related to the transition of women from early career stages to tenure track positions and leadership roles in academic and research settings. WEBS targets early career women in the Biological Sciences with a focus on women who have earned their doctoral degrees within the past two to eight years and who do not have tenure. WEBS participants will be current post-docs, research scientists and assistant professors who face the critical transition period from graduate studies to permanent research and teaching positions. WEBS includes a component of research and evaluation that addresses what challenges early career women in biological sciences face, how these can be addressed, and how can effective professional development experience be delivered to early career women in the biological sciences in order to improve attrition at this stage. This symposium represents a new partnership with the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent), an NSF-funded research center that provides a working environment for fertile interactions among scientists. This partnership with NESCent will create opportunities to foster professional development as well as research collaborations among both junior and senior female scientists in the disciplines of ecology and evolution.
The overall goal of WEBS is to significantly increase the retention and promotion of women, including women from underrepresented groups, in the biological sciences to create greater diversity in academic and scientific leadership. Retention of women is critical for fostering diversity and innovation in research and teaching institutions. Equal representation of women in leadership roles in academic settings will positively influence all aspects of the university community. This symposium targets future leaders and equips them with the information and resources needed to successfully navigate the tenure track and have thriving careers and personal lives.
WEBS: Women Evolving Biological Sciences While the biological sciences have a higher percentage of women earning doctorates thanmost other science fields, women are not represented in the faculty at the same levelsas would be expected based on these percentages. During the transition from graduatestudent and postdoctoral scholar, a worrying number of women leave academic research– many more than their male counterparts. Thus a significant percentage of women arenot investing their skills in the scientific enterprise. This attrition represents a waste of talent, a waste of resources invested in training and inequalities in careers prospects andsuccess related to gender. Women Evolving Biological Sciences (WEBS) is a four-day symposium aimed at addressing the retention of female biologists and issues related to the transition of womenfrom early career stages to tenure track positions and leadership roles in academic andresearch settings. WEBS explicitly addresses the factors impacting the success of womenin academia and scientific careers with the goal of equipping early career women with tools and a network to inform and support their career progression and decisions. WEBS targets early career women in the biological sciences with an emphasis on ecology and evolutionary biology. In particular, WEBS focuses on women who have earned their doctoral degrees within the past two to eight years and who do not have tenure in order to address the critical transition period from graduate studies and post-doctoral positions to permanent research and teaching positions. WEBS participants are current post-docs,research scientists and assistant professors in the fields of ecology and evolutionarybiology. For more information please see: www.webs.washington.edu. WEBS equips participants with the information and resources needed to successfully navigate the tenure track and have thriving careers and personal lives. Through a series ofpanel discussions and workshops, WEBS provides the following: * Concrete skills and take-home tips for addressing a range of issues from navigatingthe tenure track, designing a research program and managing time to establishing andmaintaining successful mentoring relationships and balancing career progression and liferesponsibility; * Opportunities to build a peer network and potential mentoring relationships with seniorscientists; * Exposure to the range of potential paths and success stories of women in the biologicalsciences. These early career female biologists are empowered to identify areas where they needhelp and seek out resources to address them and are enabled to navigate a career paththe most suitable for their career and life satisfaction. To date, four WEBS symposia have been held with NSF funding. WEBS 2013 was held in partnership with theNational Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent). NESCent is committed to cross-disciplinary research in evolution and catalyzes and facilitates such research through a suite of programs ranging from its Science and Synthesis Program to its Education andOutreach Group. An important aspect of all these programs is the support of research and education across disciplinary, geography and demographic boundaries, includingoutreach to groups who are underrepresented in evolutionary biology. NESCent is particularly interested in supporting the professional development of women in science. The WEBS-NESCent partnership, in particular, was a great success. Participants reported that "WEBS exceeded [my] expectations across the board….[and they cameaway with] great information tips, development of relationships, and resources tomove forward with." In particular, WEBS participants benefited by expanding their professional network to include opportunities afforded by NESCent and by interactingwith NESCent postdoctoral fellows. In addition, NESCent postdoctoral fellows had the opportunity to network with WEBS participants and senior scientists and to attend a selection of the skill-based WEBS workshops. To date, the 114 early career participants and 38 senior scientist panelists reported feeling inspired and equipped with new connections and tools that they expect will helpthem in their career in the years to come. WEBS has proven to be effective in providing participants with the information and resources needed to successfully navigate the tenure track and have thriving careers and personal lives. Data from a longitudinal analysis ofthe 2007 and 2008 WEBS participants’ responses to pre- and post-symposia surveys suggest significant improvement in the following areas: participant understanding of the requirements for becoming tenured and securing full professorships; participation in certain elements of networking; and feelings of preparedness in a large variety of targeted skill areas. While WEBS was essentially conceived as professional development intervention which created a forum for skills acquisition and networking, the career effects were much more profound. Evaluation results demonstrate that through their participation in WEBS, participants acquire skills and share a professional development and lifereflection experience with other women biologists that result in ongoing skills implementation and increasing sense of empowerment. This transformation has resulted in improved career self-efficacy and satisfaction. A paper highlighting the impact ofWEBS will be submitted for publication in Fall 2013.
