Collaborative Research: The Women Engineering Faculty Leadership Network

尽管担任初级职位的女性工程学教员数量持续增长，但工程学院的人口统计数据清楚地表明，担任职业生涯中期和高级教职的女性稀缺。尽管个别机构在努力增加女性工程学教员担任领导职务方面可以取得进展，但如果没有其他机构教员的支持，女性工程学教员的稀缺和孤立使改革变得缓慢和困难。因此，必须采取措施将来自全国各地的女性工程学教师联系起来，讨论和探索学术领导力的挑战和机遇。我们建议通过发展“女性工程学教师领导力网络”来促进广泛的制度变革，这是一个中央培训和指导计划/社区，用于1)变革性领导技能发展；2)为女性工程学教师提供指导支持；以及3)在现有的组织之间建立关键的联系，这些组织在教育和行业中提供支持女性工程师的服务。变革性领导建立在协作式领导的概念上，即组织成员之间共享的领导力。这种领导方式强调信任、开放沟通、共同愿景和分享权力的重要性。协作领导的核心是致力于提高另一个部门的人力资本，以推动共同事业；它是一种管理模式，可以影响各级的变革，从消除各部门的微气候不平等到重塑机构文化的更广泛方面。我们建议将这些未来的女性教职员工聚集在一个支持性的环境中，学习变革性的领导技巧，这是本机构中男性占主导地位的教职员工所不常见的，并将她们与成功的女性学术领袖合作，帮助她们为应对学术领导的挑战做好准备。这项建议寻求将女性工程学教员聚集在一起，通过基层努力提高全国学术领导职位中女性工程师的数量和级别，以实现制度变革。为了实现这一目标，我们建议赞助领导力发展会议、高级领导力会议、SWE会议研讨会、制度转型/高级领导力研讨会和领导力峰会，以及创建一个独特的女性教员辅导电子社区。我们相信，通过将性别平等问题纳入领导力培训材料，并改变学术角色和奖励的范式，这些活动将对改变全国的学术环境产生重大影响。这项提议是由爱荷华州立大学、路易斯安那州立大学、中佛罗里达大学、康涅狄格大学、锡拉丘兹大学和犹他大学与德克萨斯大学、埃尔帕索大学、马里兰大学、宾夕法尼亚大学、康涅狄格大学、加州大学戴维斯分校、加拿大圭尔夫大学和凯特琳大学的合作者共同提交的。来自霍华德大学、德克萨斯基督教大学和东北大学的其他教职员工已经同意在该项目的执行董事会任职。布罗德影响代表不足的群体的广泛参与：网络、培训和以网络为中心的指导将支持女性工程学教师的专业发展，特别是领导力发展。多样性的重要性是这项计划的核心。增强研究和教育基础设施：该计划将加强学术机构的组织和人力基础设施。拟议活动中的合作跨越地理、学科和机构边界。这一计划的更广泛影响将包括一批领导人，他们将帮助激励和维持一种新的学术角色和回报范例。广泛传播：该计划将产生一个新的导师网络。该计划将在组织之间建立新的联系，这将有助于扩大和加强多元化努力。对社会的好处：领导力对制度变革至关重要，该计划中的领导模式建立在将改善机构及其服务社会能力的价值观之上。

While the number of women engineering faculty in entry-level positions continues to grow, the demographics of the engineering academy clearly show a scarcity of women in mid-career and senior-level faculty positions. Although individual institutions can progress in their efforts to increase the participation of women engineering faculty in leadership positions, the scarcity and isolation of women engineering faculty make change slow and difficult without the support of faculty from other institutions. Therefore, it is imperative that steps be taken to connect women engineering faculty members from around the country to discuss and explore the challenges and opportunities of academic leadership.We propose to catalyze widespread institutional change through the development of the "Women Engineering Faculty Leadership Network," a central training and mentoring program/community for 1) transformative leadership skills development; 2) mentoring support for women engineering faculty, and 3) making critical connections between existing organizations that provide services supporting women engineers both in education and industry. Transformative leadership is founded on the concept of collaborative leadership, i.e., leadership that is shared among members of an organization. This form of leadership emphasizes the importance of trust, open communication, shared vision, and shared power. The core of collaborative leadership is a commitment to enhancing the human capital of another for the advancement of a common cause; it is a model of stewardship that can affect change at all levels, from eliminating the micro-climate inequities found in departments to reshaping the broader aspects of institutional culture. We propose to bring these future women faculty leaders together in a supportive environment to learn transformative leadership techniques, which are not commonly practiced by the male-dominated faculty in their own institution, and to partner them with successful women academic leaders who can help prepare them for the challenges of academic leadership.This proposal seeks to bring women engineering faculty together to effect institutional change through a grassroots effort to increase the number and rank of women engineers in academic leadership positions nationwide. To accomplish this goal we propose sponsoring Leadership Development Conferences, Advanced Leadership Conferences, SWE conference workshop, an Institutional Transformation/Advance Leadership Workshop and a Leadership Summit, as well as creating a unique women faculty mentoring e-community. We believe these activities will have a major impact on transforming the academic environment across the nation by including gender-equity issues in leadership training material and transforming the paradigm of academic roles and rewards.This proposal is being submitted as a collaborative proposal between Iowa State University, Louisiana State University, University of Central Florida, University of Connecticut, Syracuse University, and the University of Utah with collaborators from the University of Texas, El Paso, University of Maryland, University of Pennsylvania, University of Connecticut, University of California, Davis, University of Guelph, Canada, and Kettering University. Other faculty from Howard University, Texas Christian University, and Northeastern University have agreed to serve on the Executive Board of the project.Broader ImpactsBroaden Participation of Underrepresented Groups: The networking, training, and web-centered mentoring will support the professional development of women engineering faculty and, specifically, leadership development. The importance of diversity is central to this proposal.Enhance Infrastructure for Research and Education: This program will enhance the organizational and human infrastructure of academic institutions. The partnering in the proposed activities crosses geographical, disciplinary, and institutional boundaries. The broader impact of this program will include a cadre of leaders who will help to motivate and sustain a new paradigm of academic roles and rewards.Broad Dissemination: The program will result in a new network of mentors. The program will build new connections among organizations, which will serve to both broaden and strengthen diversity efforts.Benefits to Society: Leadership is essential to institutional change, and the leadership model in this program is founded on values that will improve the institution and its ability to serve society.