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

尽管几十年来各种努力旨在增加科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)学科的女性人数，但这些领域的女性在大学教职员工中的比例仍然偏低。STEM专业的女性教师比男性教师更有可能与另一位学者合作，而且如果他们的伴侣在同一地点找不到足够的工作机会，女性教师比男性更有可能拒绝工作邀请。鉴于这些事实，为了努力提高STEM领域的女性教员比例，许多大学都采取了伙伴通融政策(PAP)。到目前为止，PAPs在美国大学的流行率和类型以及PAPs在招聘生产性教师以及招聘和留住女性STEM教师方面的有效性尚不清楚。这项研究提供了美国大学中急需的PAP描述，以及对PAP的理论和经验评估，以及它们对STEM学科中女性的招聘、留住和晋升的影响。将记录项目计划的现状，并评估项目计划与科技教育领域的性别多样性之间的关系。将开发一种包含社会学和经济学见解的严格建模方法，并通过专门从事协调学术数据收集和分析的信息技术专家的合作，使用教师生产率、留任和晋升数据进行测试。该理论模型预测，在除最挑剔的机构以外的任何机构中，作为双聘夫妇的一部分受聘的教职员工可能比单独受聘的教师更有效率。华盛顿州立大学(WSU)的初步研究结果支持这一假设，即平均而言，通过PAP项目招聘的教师在出版物和补助金方面的生产率更高，离开大学的可能性更小，获得终身教职和晋升的可能性更大。除了华盛顿州立大学，数据还从怀俄明大学获得。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，其他四所大学还提出了额外的请求。还将通过互联网和随机选择的后续电话访谈收集数据，以评估270个机构STEM领域的PAP的存在和类型以及性别构成。作为这一拟议项目的一部分，将对终身教职线教师进行一项基于网络的调查。调查将集中在教师S的非学术生活(例如，父母地位、子女在家年龄、婚姻状况和时机)、种族/民族背景、求职策略、职业和工作满意度、预期流动性、对大学的长期承诺以及他们作为学术双职工夫妇的一部分以及使用大学PAP的经历(如果有)。增加妇女在科技教育管理学院的任职人数是一项普遍的社会目标。了解项目计划的影响是找到有效途径增加大学技术学科中女性教员人数和取得成功的一种潜在办法。

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.