The Two-Body Problem: An Evaluation of University Partner Accommodation Policies with Implications for Recruitment, Retention, and Promotion of STEM Women

尽管几十年来为增加科学、技术、工程和数学学科的妇女人数做出了各种努力，但这些领域的妇女在大学教师中的代表性仍然不足。STEM学科的女教师比男教师更有可能与另一名学者合作，如果其伴侣无法在同一地点找到适当的工作，则比男性更有可能拒绝工作机会。鉴于这些事实，为了提高STEM领域女性教师的比例，许多大学采取了合作伙伴住宿政策（PAP）。到目前为止，美国大学中PAP的流行程度和类型以及PAP在招聘生产性教师以及招聘和留住女性STEM教师方面的功效一直是未知的。这项研究提供了一个非常需要的描述PAP在美国大学，以及PAP的理论和实证评估及其对招聘的影响，保留，并促进妇女在STEM学科。将记录PAP的现状，并估计PAP与STEM领域性别多样性之间的关系。一个严格的建模方法，丰富了社会学和经济学的见解将开发和testedwith教师的生产力，保留和促进数据，通过一个信息技术专家谁专门从事协调学术数据收集和分析的合作。理论模型预测，在任何机构以外的最有选择性的，一个教师谁是作为一个双雇用夫妇的一部分，很可能是更有成效的比一个单独的雇用。华盛顿州立大学（WSU）的初步研究结果支持了这一假设，即平均而言，通过PAP项目聘用的教师在出版物和赠款方面更有成效，不太可能离开大学，更有可能获得终身教职和晋升。除WSU外，数据还来自怀俄明州大学。已经与弗吉尼亚理工大学和南康涅狄格州立大学达成了获取数据的协议，并向其他四所大学提出了额外的要求。 数据还将通过互联网和随机选择的后续电话访谈收集，以评估270所机构的PAP的存在和类型以及STEM领域的性别组成。作为拟议项目的一部分，将对终身教职人员进行一次基于网络的调查。调查将集中在教师？的非学术生活（例如，父母状况、子女在家的年龄、婚姻状况和时间）、种族/民族背景、求职策略、职业和工作满意度、预期的流动性、对大学的长期承诺及其作为学术双职业夫妇的一部分的经历（如果有的话）以及大学PAP的使用情况。 增加妇女在STEM学院的代表性是一个普遍的社会目标。 了解PAP的影响是找到有效途径增加技术学科大学教师中妇女人数和成功的一个潜在方法。

Despite decades of various efforts meant to increase the number of women in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) disciplines, women in these fields remain under-represented on university faculties. Female faculty in STEM disciplines are more likely than their male counterparts to be partnered with another academic and more likely than men to refuse a job offer if their partners cannot find adequate employment at the same location. In light of such facts, and in an effort to increase the proportion of female faculty in STEM fields, many universities have adopted partner-accommodation policies (PAPs). Until now the prevalence and type of PAPs in U.S. universities and the efficacy of PAPs to recruit productive faculty as well as recruit and retain women STEM faculty has been unknown. This research provides a much needed description of PAPs in U.S. universities, as well as both theoretical and empirical evaluations of PAPs and their implications for the recruitment, retention, and promotion of women in STEM disciplines. The current state of PAPs will be documented and the relationship between PAPs and the gender diversity in STEM fields will be estimated. A rigorous modeling approach enriched with insights from sociology and economics will be developed and testedwith faculty productivity, retention, and promotion data via the collaboration of an informationtechnology expert who specializes in coordinated academic data collection and analysis. The theoretical model predicts that in any institution other than the most selective, a faculty member who is hired as part of a dual hire couple is likely to be more productive than an individual hire. Preliminary findings at Washington State University (WSU) support the hypothesis that, on average, faculty hired via a PAP program are more productive in terms of publications and grants, less likely to leave the university, and more likely to obtain tenure and promotion than faculty hired outside of formal PAP programs. In addition to WSU, data has been obtained from University of Wyoming. Agreements to acquire data have been made with Virginia Tech and Southern Connecticut State University, with additional requests at four other universities. Datawill also be collected via the internet and randomly selected follow-up phone interviews to assess the existence and type of PAPs and sex composition of STEM fields at 270 institutions. A web-based survey of tenure-line faculty will be administered as part of this proposed project. The survey will focus on faculty?s non-academic life (e.g., parental status, age of children in the home, marital status and timing), race/ethnic background, job search strategies, career and job satisfaction, anticipated mobility, long-term commitment to the university and their experiences, if any, being part of an academic dual-career couple and use of university PAPs. Increasing the representation of women in STEM faculties is a general societal objective. Understanding the impact of PAPs is one potential approach to finding effective ways to increase the number and the success of women on university faculties in technical disciplines.