Collaborative Research: Implementation of a Mentoring Program for Junior Women in Physical Oceanography

2002年发表的一项全国多样性研究显示，尽管几十年来女性在本科和研究生科学和工程项目中的入学率不断增加，但在全国范围内，女性在科学和工程职位上的代表性仍然不足。在某一领域接受培训的女性人数与在该领域担任要职的女性人数之间的差距越来越令人担忧，因为它阻碍了资助机构和大学利用他们在女性教育方面的投资，而且它使科学劳动力的多样性与美国整体人口的多样性之间的现有不匹配永久化。这项多样性研究以及物理海洋学界的关切促使开始一项努力，审查指导工作是否有助于在实地保留初级妇女。尽管各机构越来越关注指导在年轻科学家早期职业生涯中的作用，但人们普遍认识到，一个以学科为基础的社区也可以在科学家的早期职业生涯中促进成功。为此，设计了一个社区指导项目，为年轻女性提供从博士学位到早期科学生涯的连续性。该计划包含几个要素，包括面向整个物理海洋学社区的基于互联网的发展指导，以及面向年轻女性的Pattullo会议。除了项目本身，这项工作还建立了监督责任、参与社区的方法，以及衡量项目成功的标准。这项工作的智力优势在于增加接受过物理海洋学教育的妇女的留用。更广泛的影响来自于创造一支与学生群体和美国整体人口相匹配的科学劳动力队伍的努力。这项工作后来被称为MPOWIR，即指导物理海洋学妇女提高保留率，由国家科学基金会、海军研究办公室、能源部和国家航空航天局资助。

A national diversity study published in 2002 revealed that despite several decades of increasing enrollments for women in undergraduate and graduate science and engineering programs, women remain underrepresented in science and engineering positions nationwide. This disparity between the number of women trained in a field and the number of women occupying positions in the field is a growing concern because it prevents funding agencies and universities from capitalizing on the investment they have made on the education of women, and it perpetuates the existing mismatch between the diversity of the scientific workforce and that of the U.S. population as a whole. This diversity study, as well as concerns within the physical oceanography community, prompted the initiation of an effort to examine whether mentoring efforts could aid the retention of junior women in the field. Though institutions are increasingly focusing on the role of mentoring in the early career stages of a young scientist, it is generally recognized that a discipline-based community can also foster success during a scientist's early career. Toward this end, a community-mentoring program has been designed that would provide continuity from the Ph.D. attainment through the early years of a young woman's scientific career. The program has several elements including the development Internet-based mentoring that reaches out to the physical oceanography community as a whole and the Pattullo conference, which is targeted to junior women. In addition to the program itself, this work establishes oversight responsibility, methods to engage the community, and metrics for gauging program success. The effort's intellectual merits is geared towards increasing the retention of women who have been educationed in physical oceanography. The broader impacts arise from the efforts to create a scientific workforce whose diversity matches that of the student population and the U.S. population as a whole. This effort, which has come to be known as MPOWIR, Mentoring Physical Oceanography Women to Increase Retention is funded by the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, the Department of Energy and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.