Crossing Boundaries: Diversifying the Discipline
ADVANCE promotes parity for women, minorities
- Eight of the nine women faculty members in the UW's Department of Electrical Engineering. From the left, back row: Mari Ostendorf, Denice Denton, Eve Riskin and Deirdre Meldrum. Front row: Maya Gupta, Lih Lin, Linda Shapiro and Denise Wilson.
Tell Dean Denice Denton that her home department in the College of Engineering doesn’t fit the normal mold, and she’ll tell you that she wears that information as a badge of honor.
Denton, an electrical engineer, is one of nine women faculty in the Department of Electrical Engineering, believed to have one of the highest percentages of female faculty of any EE department in the country.
“We’re extremely proud of that fact,” said Denton, principal investigator for the university’s NSF-funded ADVANCE program, which promotes the advancement of women in engineering and science at the UW. “Of course, it’s still not enough, but we’re moving in the right direction.”
Bucking the traditional male dominance of the field isn’t a matter of chance, according to Eve Riskin, a fellow EE faculty member and director of ADVANCE’s Center for Institutional Change.
From the fall of 2001, when ADVANCE was instituted at the UW, to the fall of 2003, the number of women faculty in particpating departments increased 19.3 percent. During that same period, the number of women assistant professors went from 16 to 23 and full professors rose from 28 to 33.
“So we’re also making progress in terms of rank, but it’s slow,” Riskin said.
ADVANCE uses a combination of programs to provide leadership development, mentoring and support for women faculty. The group is pushing for institutional change that will make it easier for members of minority groups achieve their real potential. ADVANCE is also working for change at the departmental level through efforts led by Joyce Yen, program/research manager.
Most recently, the group launched an initiative targeting all faculty at the UW. The Transitional Support Program is available for faculty in the midst of major, potentially career-threatening crises, such as severe or extended illnesses, long-term family emergencies or childbirth complications.
“The whole idea behind ADVANCE is that cultural changes designed to help underrepresented groups invariably help all groups, and improve the environment for everyone,” Riskin said. “This program was ready to extend to everyone, and that’s what we’re about - improving and unifying the whole.”
For more information, visit the ADVANCE Web site.