Policy Diffusion and Organizational Effects on STEM Women in Higher Education

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This project is investigating the institutional diffusion of policies and practices that have aimed at increasing the number of women in the various science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields in United States universities. This study is building upon previous studies directed at individual and career level outcomes, but its focus is on institutional level changes and effects relative to gender diversity in graduate education and in the science and technology professoriate. The research is being driven by questions on how innovations and reforms in one part of an institution might impact another and about the channels and spheres of influence that determine whether policy directives and related initiatives can lead to sustainable reform at the graduate level in higher education. Accordingly, the research is examining whether institutional and organizational dynamics lead to isomorphic policy adoption and programs (or not) while controlling for internal characteristics and conditions in various research universities. Thus this project is examining both the horizontal and the vertical institutionalization of policies on gender diversity in STEM fields and their relative outcomes, and is considering the effect of policy antecedents and consequences in mapping the policy process and delineating policy adoption, diffusion, and outcomes across and within universities. The project is incorporating an institutional diffusion framework into an event-history model to capture related issues. It is testing eight hypotheses about the horizontal and the vertical institutionalization of policies on gender diversity in STEM fields (aggregated and disaggregated) and their relative outcomes. Event-history analyses of the timing of policy adoptions and responses facilitate the investigation of temporal variability in the diffusion process and the impact of organizational programs and initiatives promulgated by external forces.The intellectual merit of the proposed study lies in the fresh insights that it is providing for characterizing and understanding institutional transformation. An advantage of the diffusion framework approach is that it is allowing simultaneous empirical analysis of internal and external processes. By focusing on vertical and horizontal diffusion and considering institutional processes and dynamics, the study is providing a more comprehensive approach and framework than can be found in typical individual level studies of STEM women. Thus, it will contribute to a broader understanding of institutional dynamics as a fundamental feature of the policy process and will allow for delineation and specification of the theoretical underpinnings for related diffusion processes.The broader impact of the study lies in its contribution to knowledge of both symbolic and practical institutional and cultural dynamics and their further application to exploratory efforts in a variety of social scientific and education fields. The study is expected to also provide insight into how policies aimed at increasing graduate STEM degrees awarded to women and at faculty recruitment and advancement can be implemented throughout and across universities and how they can be applied more generally under different conditions.