Improving Retention and Facilitating Career Reentry for Women Scientists with a Consortium of Universities

该项目采用多管齐下的方法，将重点放在自然减员很大且存在性别差异的博士后群体，以评估如何增加女科学家留在学术工作队伍中的方法。首先，更好地了解博士后退学的原因将有助于我们更有效地制定政策。在大多数研究型大学，博士后不会受到院长的密切关注，因为他们既不是研究生，也不是教职员工。考虑到博士后培训对科学职业的重要性，这种忽视已经成为女性快速辍学的结构性问题。其次，我们将把MentorSTEM发展成为一种有效和可行的方式，让大学从女性博士后开始，为博士后提供系统的指导。我们的试验性设计使我们能够从实践中学习。在定期和反复评估被辅导者的学术成就和士气的基础上，改进指导的内容和交付。将使用各种辅导类型，并测试其在留住博士后在学术工作中的有效性。在这个项目的过程中，我们将开发和测试各种方法来支持这些博士后，以及那些指导他们的人，以实现学术上的卓越。从长远来看，我们将从这个项目中获得改善整个科学界的生活质量和学术质量的方法。我们对多样性的承诺建立在这样一种信念之上，即当没有进入壁垒时，知识最繁荣。我们渴望营造一种环境，使学术界所有成员都能作为学者成长和发展，男女都能在其中平衡家庭和事业。未能消除成功的障碍，现在女性和少数族裔学者的道路上并不均衡，这对取得卓越科学成就的可能性征收了不可接受的税。

This project uses a several-pronged approach, focusing on the postdoctoral community where attrition is both substantial and gendered, in order to assess ways to increase the retention of women scientists in the academic work force. First, better information about why postdocs drop out will help us target policies more effectively. In most research universities, postdocs do not come under the watchful eyes of deans and provosts because they are neither graduate students nor faculty. Given the importance of postdoctoral training for scientific careers, this neglect has become a structural problem for women who are dropping out at a fast clip. Second, we will develop MentorSTEM into an effective and feasible way for universities to provide systematic mentoring to postdocs, beginning with women postdocs. Our experimental design allows us to ?learn by doing,? to improve mentoring content and delivery based on regular and repeated evaluation of the scholarly success and morale of those being mentored. A variety of mentoring types will be used and tested for effectiveness at retaining the postdocs in the academic work force. Over the course of this program, we will develop and test a variety of ways to support these postdocs, as well as those who are mentoring them, to achieve scholarly excellence.In the longer run, we gain from this project ways to improve both the quality of life and the quality of scholarship for the entire scientific community. Our commitment to diversity rests on the conviction that knowledge flourishes best when there are no barriers to entry. We are eager to build an environment in which all members of the academic community can grow and flourish as scholars, and in which men and women alike can balance family and career. Failure to remove obstacles to success, now unevenly in the paths of women and minority scholars, places an unacceptable tax on the possibilities for scientific excellence.