University of Connecticut |
CLAS FocusSolving the equation: Women in math and science
Its acronym may sound frivolous – WIMSE – but whimsy is not the word to describe the work of the Women in Math, Science, and Engineering. This ad hoc group of women faculty supports hiring and retaining more women in technical disciplines, achieving equity in resources and treatment, and “making sure these issues stay in the forefront of people’s attention,” says Amy R. Howell, professor of chemistry. Howell and Maria E. Rubio, associate professor of physiology and neurobiology, have shepherded the group for the past five years or so, but its membership is not limited to women in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. A fluctuating group of 20 to 25 women faculty from CLAS, pharmacy, engineering, and agriculture get together on the Storrs campus two or three times a semester for a WIMSE lunch. WIMSE’s much larger mailing list of 130 keeps the lines of communications open among women at the Storrs and regional campuses and the Health Center who are in the STEM disciplines – science, technology, engineering, and math. WIMSE formed in part to address the needs of women who are already in the ranks at UConn, to lend support and keep women from feeling isolated in their disciplines. It grew out of a National Sciences Foundation grant proposal six years ago to find ways to improve the campus environment for women in STEM disciplines. UConn did not receive the grant, but CLAS Dean Ross D. MacKinnon, who is retiring in June, provided support to get WIMSE started. “I think that helping to begin WIMSE was one of Dean MacKinnon’s important achievements,” says Veronica Makowsky, vice provost for undergraduate education and regional campus administration, who was then an associate CLAS dean. “He is particularly sensitive to the issues of women in male-dominated fields.” The dearth of women in the sciences is a national problem that is getting attention. The American Chemical Society’s magazine, Chemical & Engineering News, recently quoted a member of Congress who was concerned that faculty diversity has not moved very far, despite an increase in the number of PhDs that academia produces. “I had never thought there could be a group like this,” says Rubio, who earned her PhD and MD at the University of Alicante in Spain and worked at the National Institutes of Health and the Max Planck Institute of Experimental Medicine in Goettingen, Germany, before coming to UConn. “One of the things that was key to me was meeting other women in STEM,” she says. WIMSE provided “a way to meet more of the University.” Last year, WIMSE sponsored an all-day career forum for women faculty, postdoctoral researchers and graduate students in STEM disciplines. More than 80 attended. While the number of women graduate students in the sciences appears to be increasing, the women say, many of those seeking higher degrees plan to work in corporate labs or non-academic settings. Young women have a hard time seeing how they could juggle the demands of family life with the demands of getting tenure, Howell says. “In science, you need to put in that extra effort to make it,” says Rubio. She sees more women graduate students than men switch from a PhD program to a master’s. Through WIMSE, women in science put these issues on the plate of top administrators, whom they invite to lunch. “You get the sense that people recognize this group, this cohort of 130 women, is an important group,” says Howell. “People recognize that there is still work to be done.” ArchivesClick here to see previous CLAS focus stories. |
