The idea that women belong in the humanities and men belong in the sciences is an old stereotype which many people would consider outdated. But one look at the faculty statistics of Binghamton University’s science departments, and at those of most universities nationwide, is enough to raise the question of how far women in the sciences have really come.
Federal agencies, including the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy, will soon be investigating how women who choose a career in academic sciences are treated in relation to their male counterparts, according to an article in the Jan. 20, 2006 issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 — which are typically used to promote women in collegiate sports but also pertain to academics — will be used to set the standards of acceptability, according to The Chronicle.
So how does BU measure up?
Of the 16 professors in the chemistry department, three are women. One of those women, Dr. Susan Bane, is the director of the biochemistry program.
According to physics department chair Dr. Eric Cotts, none of the eight physics professors are women. Of the 15 faculty members in the engineering department, three are women.
Binghamton University Provost Mary Ann Swain acknowledged that there are fewer women interested in pursuing a career in academic science, but stated that the University had an “aggressive outlook” on hiring women.
“My sense is that one of the things that we try and do here is that we try to create an atmosphere where, when a woman is appointed, she has the same structures and encouragement that promote success,” Swain said. “And you begin to see increasing women in biology and biochemistry, for example over time, and I think that will continue to happen.”
According to data published by the Association for Women in Science, women earned 9 percent of “all science and engineering doctorates” in 1970. That number had increased to 35 percent in 1999. In that year, women earned 54 percent of the doctorate degrees in behavioral and social sciences, up from 16 percent in 1970.
These statistics could account for the gender make-up of the faculty of many of BU’s science departments.
Associate professor of organic chemistry, Dr. Rebecca Kissling, observed that academic scientists typically have a 40-year career, “and 40 years ago it was 1966, when there were fewer women in science as professionals.” It was then that the increased demand for professors arose to accommodate the “baby-boomers,” who were anxious to get a college education. As a result, more men were hired than women, and there had not been “an influx of hiring since the mid- to late-’90s.”
Kissling’s observations are reflected in the faculty of the science departments at BU, where there are, in many cases, as many as three or four times more male faculty members than female.
According to Swain, part of the “aggressive outlook” in promoting women in science will entail advertising for jobs.
“We make special efforts to ensure that women are part of the applicant pool by insisting that departments reach out to publishing venues that women are likely to look at,” she said.
Dr. Cotts agreed.
“I advertise everywhere I can think of,” he said. “We try to be a welcoming and energetic learning environment for everybody. I try to look at the people and not their gender.”
Maternity leave for female professors and graduate research assistants is another aspect of the role of women in science, which most male faculty do not have to consider.
According to Dr. Laurie E. McNeil, department chair of the physics and astronomy departments at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, departments vary in the accommodations they make for female faculty who need maternity leave.
“Departments with fewer women don’t realize that it’s something that needs to be worked on,” she said.
McNeill is involved with a program called Climate for Women Site Visit Program, sponsored by the American Physical Society, which performs “site visits” when a department requires it. She has performed “a couple of dozen” of these visits, and has observed the way in which women are treated at a variety of university physics departments.
“It does seem to be a critical mass issue,” she said. “When 15 to 25 percent of the faculty are women, it becomes a more comfortable environment for women. There arises a consciousness among others — that is to say men — who do the hiring, that hiring women is a good thing to do.”
But the demands of a life of research can be a dissuading factor in the choices that women make.
“A lot of my friends in graduate school who considered a career in scientific academia decided against it because of the strain [on raising a family],” Kissling said. “It’s a fairly big issue.”
According to Swain, the University aims to be sensitive to the personal needs of faculty.
“Women have young children, but men also have young children, and/or both of them have aging parents,” Swain said. “And we certainly have had faculty come and have a child at the same time they’ve gotten tenure. I’m not saying it’s the easiest thing in the world to do, but we try and be as helpful as we can in facilitating those efforts.”