Published by the MIT News Office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.
Published by the MIT News Office at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Cambridge, Mass.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30, 2002
| |
Associate Professor Evelynn Hammonds speaking at the MIT meeting of the National Initiative on Minority Women Faculty. Photo by Laura Wulf |
By Sarah H. Wright
News Office
Minority women science and engineering faculty from around the country gathered
at MIT on Jan. 18-19 to explore common solutions to a problem many confront
alone: despite remarkable individual and professional achievements, they continue
to face daunting career barriers inside the academy.
The two-day conference, hosted by the Center for the Study of Diversity in
Science, Technology and Medicine at MIT, formed part of a National Initiative
on Minority Women Faculty. The director of the center is Evelynn M. Hammonds,
associate professor of the history of science, who served as the event’s
co-facilitator with Angela B. Ginoria, associate professor of women’s studies
and psychology at the University of Washington.
In opening remarks, Chancellor Phillip L. Clay, a professor of urban planning,
expressed his hope for “the kind of leadership that would voice how to
address issues and aspirations of young women of color.”
Clay charged the women faculty at the National Initiative on Minority Women
Faculty (NIMWF) conference to discern the “points of leverage that would
make some progress, a technology for institutional change that will address
diversity.” He also reminded them of their role as mentors and guides for
the next generations of students.
“Young people look to us for advice and help. We have to work to make
institutions more receptive and we have to work on our own younger brothers
and sisters so that when the opportunities are available they will seize them—and
be confident that there are those of us who will help them along the path,”
Clay said.
Provost Robert A. Brown said he hoped for a “national impact” from
the conference in its study of “gender and race, of what the pipeline issues
are, and of tools for enhancing the diversity in the community. MIT is an environment
in which we can make progress.”
Hammonds said that goals after the “very successful” conference include:
“It was so heartening to hear both about their many scientific and technical
accomplishments, and their deep desire to change the academy so the next generation
of minority women in science and engineering would not have to face the same
issues of isolation and marginalization they had faced,” Hammonds said.
“We may look back on this meeting as a critical turning point in our progress
to advance the participation of minorities—both women and men—in science
and engineering at MIT,” said Nancy Hopkins, the Amgen Professor of Biology.
Hopkins was an author of a 1999 report, “A Study on the Status of Women
Faculty in Science at MIT” (see MIT
Tech Talk, March 31, 1999).
“As a result of the widespread attention the women in science report received,
MIT obtained funding to establish a gender equity project here at the Institute
to analyze the status of women throughout the Institute,” Hammonds said.
The main question prompting the NIMWF conference was how race or ethnicity
had shaped the careers of minority women in science and engineering. Another
goal was to explore institutional arrangements that had helped or hindered their
work and professional development in the academy, Hammonds said.
“In conducting these analyses, we wanted to include the perspective of
minority women, especially in science and engineering. We thought that the best
way to understand the status of minority women in science and engineering would
be to bring a group of leading tenured minority women scientists and engineers
to MIT to talk with women on our faculty involved in the gender equity project,”
Hammonds said. There are now only four tenured minority women at MIT out of
a full-time faculty of approximately 950, she said later.
The organizational roots for the conference reach back more than 25 years.
“We modeled the meeting on the first such gathering of minority women scientists,
which was convened by the AAAS in 1976 and chaired by the African-American biologist,
Dr. Jewel Plummer Cobb,” Hammonds said. “The proceedings of that conference
were published by the AAAS as ‘The Double Bind: The Price of Being a Minority
Woman in Science,’” which delineated the twin burdens of racism and
sexism faced by minority women. “It was for many years the only report
that discussed the status of minority women in science and engineering in the
United States.”
Hammonds and other participants noted some surprises as they heard minority
women discuss their professional lives. “I was surprised that even in 2002,
these women had so few opportunities in their professional careers to talk and
network with other minority women scientists and engineers. Another surprise
was that despite the diversity of the participants, these Asian-American, Native
American, African-American and Hispanic women found many commonalities in their
experiences,” she said.
“I think all the participants were surprised by the presentations on where
minority women scientists and engineers stand in the academy. The data highlighted
how shockingly few women there are at all ranks. For example, in the top 50
chemistry departments in the United States, among female faculty only one full
professor is black, five are Hispanic, 11 are Asian-American and one is Native
American,” Hammonds said.
Hopkins, too, was struck by the “eye-opening data” in Nelson’s
research. “It was galvanizing. Who could see those numbers and not say
that we as faculty have failed—failed our students, our institution, and
most of all, failed our nation?” she said.
The Ford Foundation contributed funds to establish the NIMWF in MIT’s Center for the Study of Diversity in Science, Technology, and Medicine.
