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表明，尽管几十年来妇女在本科和研究生科学和工程专业的入学人数不断增加，但妇女在全国科学和工程职位上的代表性仍然不足。在一个领域接受培训的妇女人数与在该领域担任职务的妇女人数之间的这种差距越来越令人担忧，因为它阻止了资助机构和大学利用他们在妇女教育方面所做的投资，并且使科学劳动力的多样性与美国人口的多样性之间现有的不匹配永久化。这一多样性研究以及物理海洋学界的关切促使开始努力审查辅导工作是否有助于留住该领域的初级妇女。虽然各机构越来越重视在青年科学家职业生涯早期阶段的指导作用，但人们普遍认识到，以学科为基础的社区也可以促进科学家在职业生涯早期取得成功。为此，一个社区指导计划已经设计，将提供从博士学位的连续性。这是一个年轻女性科学生涯早期的成就。该方案有几个要素，包括发展基于互联网的指导，以达到物理海洋学界作为一个整体和Pattullo会议，这是针对初级妇女。 除了计划本身，这项工作还建立了监督责任、参与社区的方法以及衡量计划成功的指标。这项努力的智力价值是为了增加受过物理海洋学教育的妇女的保留。更广泛的影响来自于创造一支科学劳动力的努力，其多样性与学生人口和整个美国人口相匹配。这项工作被称为MPOWIR，指导物理海洋学妇女以增加保留率，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.