This project is examining the influence of career life balance on communities of color by supporting the participation of women researchers and advanced graduate students from underserved populations in an international experience in Latin American and a subsequent webinar series with international speakers to discuss the accompanying challenges and potential solutions for maintaining levels of career life balance. These activities will be accompanied by online discussions and wide dissemination.
The Women researchers will be attending the July 2014 conference for the Latin and Caribbean Consortium of Engineering Institutions (LACCEI) in Guayaquil, Ecuador. The graduate students will be mentored by women who have a long-standing track record for mentoring graduate students from underrepresented groups. The participants will have opportunities to meet researchers from other underrepresented communities in Latin America. This conference will have sessions that will discuss career choices, life/work balance, and the impact of family and traditions on advancement decisions. In addition, the conference will provide opportunities to develop new collaborations with women in the STEM fields from the U.S. and different Latin American countries (e.g., Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Argentina and Panama). Following the conference, a webinar series with blogged discussions will discuss career life balance based on research and experiences from experts who were invited to participate in the Gender Summit 3 North America in November 2013 which was co-sponsored by the National Science Foundation, and sister scientific organizations in Mexico, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Representatives from each of these countries will participate in the webinar series and blog discussions. The blog will include both online discussions via a website, and microblogging using Twitter.
The webinar series will feature topics such as balancing work and family, how family decisions affect career advancement, and subconscious "imposterism" in the company of males at work and at home. Further, it will highlight the policies and best practices that are working for women in other countries such as equal pay for faculty at UNAM in Mexico, and findings from Europe?s genSET project. The webinars will also include co-host/discussants from the LSAMP community, who will bring their perspectives as mentors of next generation of underrepresented minority STEM researchers.
Overall the project will contribute to understanding family commitments, family influence, and family challenges on the career decisions of researchers of color. We will examine child-care, eldercare, cultural contexts and perceptions of underrepresented minorities abroad, and the influence of male-dominated societies on current participants. Furthermore, the project will facilitate development of international collaborative relationships for students and faculty, an activity important to professional development and promotion. It will develop a structure that can enhance the international mobility of a generation of future STEM research communities of color, to increase their global influence and competitiveness. The online series will engage researchers to discuss ways to increase global engagement, and corresponding issues that affect career life balance.
This project is co-funded by the International Science and Engineering Section, the Career Life Balance Initiative and the Division of Engineering Education and Centers Broadening Participation in Engineering Program.
