Development and Implementation of ARROWS (Advancement, Recruitment, and Retention of Women in Science)

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The College of Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) is developing and implementing ARROWS (Advancement, Recruitment, and Retention of Women in Science): a package of practices and policies that will specifically benefit women basic scientists and easily be disseminated to other colleges of medicine (COMs). The goals of the current work are to (1) Increase the number of women basic scientists (including racial/ethnic minority women scientists) recruited into COMs by changing the applicant pool and hiring practices; and (2) Improve the retention & advancement of women scientists (including racial/ethnic minority women scientists) in COMs by achieving the critical mass, changing the promotion practices, and providing key supports. This ADVANCE project is adapting strategies from research and best practices and disseminating the effective package of adaptations at a national level. It is also addressing the specific barriers faced by women basic scientist faculty. The project work is designed to foster a culture that promotes recruitment, retention, participation, and advancement in a way that is both sustainable and serves as a viable model for peer institutions. Consistent with research on the theory of tokenism, which argues that women experience more discrimination (i.e., inequities) if they are tokens rather than a critical mass, the goal of the ARROWS package is to increase the overall number of women basic scientists employed (through both recruitment and retention) and holding positions of high rank and leadership as a means of achieving critical mass and overcoming the adverse effects associated with women perceiving themselves as tokens in the workplace. Within the framework of the empirically supported Social Ecological Model, multiple layers of influence (i.e., individual scientist, department, college, national network of COMs) that affect engagement and promotion of female and ethnically diverse scientists must be simultaneously targeted to accomplish this goal.