Diversity in Engineering

When Jennifer Doudna was in sixth grade, she came home one day to find that her dad had left a paperback titled The Double Helix on her bed. She put it aside, thinking it was one of those detective tales she loved. When she read it on a rainy Saturday, she discovered she was right, in a way. As she sped through the pages, she became enthralled by the intense drama behind the competition to discover the code of life. Even though her high school counselor told her girls didn't become scientists, she decided she would. Driven by a passion to understand how nature works and to turn discoveries into inventions, she would help to make what the book's author, James Watson, told her was the most important biological advance since his codiscovery of the structure of DNA. She and her collaborators turned a curiosity of nature into an invention that will transform the human race: an easy-to-use tool that can edit DNA. Known as CRISPR, it opened a brave new world of medical miracles and moral questions. Her story is an "enthralling detective story" (Oprah Daily) that involves the most profound wonders of nature, from the origins of life to the future of our species.

From a star theoretical physicist, a journey into the world of particle physics and the cosmos--and a call for a more liberatory practice of science. In The Disordered Cosmos, Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein shares her love for physics, from the Standard Model of Particle Physics and what lies beyond it, to the physics of melanin in skin, to the latest theories of dark matter--along with a perspective informed by history, politics, and the wisdom of Star Trek.  One of the leading physicists of her generation, Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is also one of fewer than one hundred Black American women to earn a PhD from a department of physics. Her vision of the cosmos is vibrant, buoyantly nontraditional, and grounded in Black and queer feminist lineages.  Dr. Prescod-Weinstein urges us to recognize how science, like most fields, is rife with racism, misogyny, and other forms of oppression. She lays out a bold new approach to science and society, beginning with the belief that we all have a fundamental right to know and love the night sky. The Disordered Cosmos dreams into existence a world that allows everyone to experience and understand the wonders of the universe.

The phenomenal true story of the black female mathematicians at NASA at the leading edge of the feminist and civil rights movement, whose calculations helped fuel some of America's greatest achievements in space--a powerful, revelatory contribution that is as essential to our understanding of race, discrimination, and achievement in modern America as Between the World and Me and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. The basis for the smash Academy Award-nominated film starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monae, Kirsten Dunst, and Kevin Costner. Before John Glenn orbited the earth, or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of dedicated female mathematicians known as "human computers" used pencils, slide rules and adding machines to calculate the numbers that would launch rockets, and astronauts, into space. Among these problem-solvers were a group of exceptionally talented African American women, some of the brightest minds of their generation. Originally relegated to teaching math in the South's segregated public schools, they were called into service during the labor shortages of World War II, when America's aeronautics industry was in dire need of anyone who had the right stuff. Suddenly, these overlooked math whizzes had a shot at jobs worthy of their skills, and they answered Uncle Sam's call, moving to Hampton, Virginia and the fascinating, high-energy world of the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory. Even as Virginia's Jim Crow laws required them to be segregated from their white counterparts, the women of Langley's all-black "West Computing" group helped America achieve one of the things it desired most: a decisive victory over the Soviet Union in the Cold War, and complete domination of the heavens.

Research frequently neglects the important ways that race and gender intersect within the complex structural dynamics of STEM. Diversifying STEM fills this void, bringing together a wide array of perspectives and the voices of a number of multidisciplinary scholars. The essays cover three main areas: the widely-held ideology that science and mathematics are "value-free," which promotes pedagogies of colorblindness in the classroom as well as an avoidance of discussions around using mathematics and science to promote social justice; how male and female students of color experience the intersection of racist and sexist structures that lead to general underrepresentation and marginalization; and recognizing that although there are no quick fixes, there exists evidence-based research suggesting concrete ways of doing a better job of including individuals of color in STEM.

This new edition delves into current topics including diversity and inclusion, the impact of social media in the workplace, as well as providing new information on implicit bias, and other factors affecting leadership success. Arranged to follow a career-life progression, the chapters can be read in any order, but all sections support leadership development and offer easy-to-find bulleted lists supported by current research in sociology, education, and psychology. Written both to support career success and to encourage leadership self-awareness, Becoming Leaders is a book that all women, from those starting their career in engineering to experienced managers and faculty, can rely on for advice, information, and inspiration.

In one of the first in-depth studies to focus on minorities who have made it to the top, Breaking Through examines the crucial connection between corporate culture and the advancement of people of color. American companies may tout their equal opportunity initiatives, but with 95% of all executive-level positions in the United States held by white males, most of these programs clearly fall far short of their goals when it comes to diversifying upper management. Yet, even in the face of suchoverwhelming odds, some minority executives do break through to the highest leadership ranks. What can we learn from these success stories? The often surprising conclusions drawn by authors Thomas and Gabarro represent important milestones both for the study of organizational practice and for minorities planning their own course of professional achievement. Here are the determining factors--both individual and organizational--that correspond to the advancement of minority executives to the highest levels.

Resilience and Success charts the education and career trajectories of African American women scientists and sheds light as to why young African American females drop off the science map in high school. It constructs a story about the map, which includes exits, entrances and turns. This phenomenon was influenced by cultural and socio-economic issues; class, race relations and racial biases; geography and most important, opportunities and serendipity. None of the roads were smooth as these African American women followed in the footsteps of those who had gone before them. It is critical for young African American female students to know that they have a passion and sense of curiosity befitting a future scientist.

Genetic engineering, nanotechnology, astrophysics, particle physics: We live in an engineered world, one where the distinctions between science and engineering, technology and research, are fast disappearing. This book shows how, at the dawn of the twenty-first century, the goals of natural scientists - to discover what was not known - and that of engineers - to create what did not exist - are undergoing an unprecedented convergence. Sunny Y. Auyang ranges widely in demonstrating that engineering today is not only a collaborator with science but its equal. In concise accounts of the emergence of industrial laboratories and chemical and electrical engineering, and in whirlwind histories of the machine tools and automobile industries and the rise of nuclear energy and information technology, her book presents a broad picture of modern engineering: its history, structure, technological achievements, and social responsibilities; its relation to natural science, business administration, and public policies. Auyang uses case studies such as the development of the F-117A Nighthawk and Boeing 777 aircraft, as well as the experiences of engineer-scientists such as Oliver Heaviside, engineer.

This authorized biography of Rosalyn Yalow is the life story of one of the few Nobel Prize-winning women in science. An outspoken woman and a complex hero in an age of superficial celebrity worship, this is the complete tale of her remarkable rise from child of uneducated immigrant parents to shining star in a male-dominated profession and world. As this story unfolds - as told by a respected physician who was her scientific colleague and friend - we learn of a young girl who against all odds grew up into one of the most venerated women in science. Her life story is related intermittently against the backdrop of her later years, when, after having won the Nobel Prize and suddenly felled by a stroke, she was brought to a hospital where, soiled with blood and unrecognized, she was "dumped" as a charity case onto another hospital. From a long line of strong women, Rosalyn emerged from being the daughter of immigrant parents struggling to make ends meet, to the young, determined woman who made it her destiny to break all barriers. Young and energetic, she broke into the sciences as a lone female graduate student in physics, outshining her male classmates. She refused to accept a conventional career as a physics teacher, and instead pioneered in the new field of nuclear medicine.

Women, Science, and Technology is an ideal reader for courses in feminist science studies, science studies more generally, women's studies, and studies in gender and education. This second edition fully updates its predecessor, dropping ten readings and replacing them with new ones that: extend content coverage into areas not originally included, such as reproductive, agricultural, medical and imaging technologies, reflect new feminist theory and research on biology, language, the global economy and the intersection of race and class with gender provide current statistical information about the representation of women and people of colour in science, technology, engineering and mathematics are more accessible for students. Section introductions have also been fully updated to cover the latest controversies, such as Harvard president Lawrence Summers' widely debated discussion about women and science and the current debates surrounding reports on the low numbers of female engineers.

Scientists offer personal accounts of the challenges, struggles, successes, U-turns, and satisfactions encountered in their careers in industry, academia, and government.This insightful book offers essential life and career lessons for newly minted STEM graduates and those seeking a career change. Thirty-six leading scientists and engineers (including two Nobel Prize winners) describe the challenges, struggles, successes, satisfactions, and U-turns encountered as they established their careers. Readers learn that there are professional possibilities beyond academia, as contributors describe the paths that took them into private industry and government as well as to college and university campuses. They discuss their varying preferences for solitary research or collaborative teamwork; their attempts to achieve work-life balance; and unplanned changes in direction that resulted in a more satisfying career. Women describe confronting overt sexism and institutional gender bias; scientists of color describe the experience of being outsiders in their field.

Narrating the well-lived life of the "Chinese Madame Curie" -- a recipient of the first Wolf Prize in Physics (1978), the first woman to receive an honorary doctorate from Princeton University, as well as the first female president of the American Physical Society -- this book provides a comprehensive and honest account of the life of Dr Wu Chien-Shiung, an outstanding and leading experimental physicist of the 20th century.

On June 17, 1963, Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space. Unlike every previous milestone in the space race, however, this event did not spur NASA to put an American woman into orbit. There were suitable candidates: two years earlier thirteen female pilots recruited by the private Woman in Space program had passed a strenuous physical exam and were ready for another stage of astronaut testing. Yet American women did not escape Earth's orbit for another thirty years. In Right Stuff, Wrong Sex, Margaret A. Weitekamp shows how the Woman in Space program - conceived by Dr. William Randolph Lovelace and funded by world-famous pilot and businesswoman Jacqueline Cochran - challenged prevailing attitudes about women's roles and capabilities. In examining the experiences of the Fellow Lady Astronaut Trainees (as the candidates called themselves), this book documents the achievements and frustrated hopes of a remarkable group of women whose desire to serve their country fell victim to their country's suspicion of - and hostility to - such aspirations.

Discover the trials & triumphs of great female inventors. "It's a fascinating and gratifying book..It gives us a positive view of women's inventiveness, from the frivolous to the noble." -The New York Times Book Review "It is the wide spectrum of female humanity and ability in this book that makes it an especially valuable addition to the growing popular library on the accomplishments and work lives of women." -Los Angeles Times "An informative collection of talent, trivia, and history, Mothers of Invention will interest most anyone. More importantly, though, it will serve to inspire girls and women of all ages. For that reason, it belongs on the shelves of schools and public libraries everywhere." -Tampa Tribune

In Significant Figures, acclaimed mathematician Ian Stewart explores the work of 25 of history's most important mathematicians, showing how they developed on each other's work and built the mathematics we use today. Through these short biographies, we get acquainted with the history of mathematics from Archimedes to William Thurston, and learn about those too often left out of the cannon, such as Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, the creator of algebra; Ada Lovelace, the world's first computer programmer; and Emmy Noether, whose research on symmetry paved the way for modern physics. Tracing the evolution of mathematics over the course of two millennia, Significant Figures will educate and delight aspiring mathematicians and experts alike.

Women are making great strides regarding gender equality and equal pay in the workplace. But there are many high-paying, fast-growing fields that young women still may not be aware of as exciting career options. The U.S. Department of Labor classifies nontraditional careers for women as those in which 25 percent or less of the people working in that particular career are female. Educational requirements for these rewarding jobs range from apprenticeship training to graduate degrees. There are 22 nontraditional careers for women in the book, including Aircraft Pilots, Architects, Automotive Service Mechanics, Carpenters, Chief Executives, Chiropractors, Civil Engineers, Computer Software Engineers, Construction and Building Inspectors, Construction Managers, Cost Estimators, Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Electricians, Engineering Technicians, Firefighters, Industrial Engineers, Police Officers, Stone Workers, and Surveyors.There are also many rewarding careers that are not traditionally sought-after by male workers. This book features 9 fast-growing careers in which fewer than 20 percent of males are employed. The book also features interviews with women and men who have excelled in these careers.

In 1957 William Whyte published his classic study of the lives and mores of men in a white-collar suburb, The Organization Man. Since then the entry of women into the work force in massive numbers has radically changed the workplace and the ethos of middle-class America. Sally Helgesen returns to the Chicago suburbs of Whyte's book and explores in details the lives of professional women in post-feminist America and shows how radically they have changed the workplace, their neighborhoods, and society as a whole. Working women do not live the kind of cookie cutter lives chronicled in The Organization Man. Balancing work, children, community and spiritual lives, they have become (by necessity) adaptive and creative. Indeed, they've put a great premium on choice, which explains why career switching, entrepreneurship, alternative spirituality non-traditional families, decentralized bureaucracies and many other facets of modern American life are a direct result of the entree of women into the workforce.

In stark contrast to popular belief, women of the African Diaspora have engaged in economic and leadership activities throughout the course of history. Black women around the world draw from a tradition of thousands of years of strategies that have enabled them to face and conquer the challenges of life as women of color. And yet today, black women are marginalized by an economic and financial community still dominated by white men. In Market Women, educator, activist, and entrepreneur Cheryl Smith sets the record straight, applying insights from a variety of fields to trace the roots of black women's entrepreneurship, as it is currently practiced in the United States. Featuring in-depth interviews with 19 present-day entrepreneurs (in ventures as diverse as catering, bookselling, millinery, and construction), Smith reveals an approach to business that is based on personal relationships, pooling of resources, a sense of humor, apprenticeship and mentoring, and strong mother-daughter bonds that defy traditional definitions of business success, wealth creation, and power. In the process she gives voice to a long-disenfranchised group whose struggles and triumphs in business illuminate universal themes that transcend race and gender.

Includes arguments about the causes & seriousness of the problem, what constitutes actionable behavior, & the best means to reduce harassment.

Magdolna Hargittai uses over fifteen years of in-depth conversation with female physicists, chemists, biomedical researchers, and other scientists to form cohesive ideas on the state of the modern female scientist. The compilation, based on sixty conversations, examines unique challenges thatwomen with serious scientific aspirations face. In addition to addressing challenges and the unjustifiable underrepresentation of women at the higher levels of academia, Hargittai takes a balanced approach by discussing how some of the most successful of these women have managed to obtain professional success and personal happiness. Women Scientists portrays scientists from different backgrounds, different geographical regions-eighteen countries from four continents-and leaders from a variety of professional backgrounds, including eight Nobel laureate women. The book is divided into three sections: "Husband and Wife Teams,""Women at the Top," and "In High Positions." Hargittai uses her own experience to introduce her first section on the lives of prominent scientific couples and addresses the joys and disadvantages of husband and wife teams. The second section is a comprehensive exploration of the struggles and triumphs of "women at the top." Hargittai introduces women from countries where relatively little has been written about female scientists. The final section focuses on women scientists involved with science administration and leadership. Hargittai's biographical sketches role models for budding scientists.

Women have entered the labor market in unprecedented numbers. Yet these critically needed workers still earn less than men and have fewer opportunities for advancement. This study traces the evolution of the female labor force in America, addressing the issue of gender distinction in the workplace and refuting the notion that women's employment advances were a response to social revolution rather than long-run economic progress. Employing innovative quantitative history methods and new data series on employment, earnings, work experience, discrimination, and hours of work, this study establishes that the present economic status of women evolved gradually over the last two centuries and that past conceptions of women workers persist.

When technology reinforces inequality, it's not just a glitch--it's a signal that we need to redesign our systems to create a more equitable world. The word "glitch" implies an incidental error, as easy to patch up as it is to identify. But what if racism, sexism, and ableism aren't just bugs in mostly functional machinery--what if they're coded into the system itself? In the vein of heavy hitters such as Safiya Umoja Noble, Cathy O'Neil, and Ruha Benjamin, Meredith Broussard demonstrates in More Than a Glitch how neutrality in tech is a myth and why algorithms need to be held accountable. Broussard, a data scientist and one of the few Black female researchers in artificial intelligence, masterfully synthesizes concepts from computer science and sociology. She explores a range of examples: from facial recognition technology trained only to recognize lighter skin tones, to mortgage-approval algorithms that encourage discriminatory lending, to the dangerous feedback loops that arise when medical diagnostic algorithms are trained on insufficiently diverse data. Even when such technologies are designed with good intentions, Broussard shows, fallible humans develop programs that can result in devastating consequences. Broussard argues that the solution isn't to make omnipresent tech more inclusive, but to root out the algorithms that target certain demographics as "other" to begin with. With sweeping implications for fields ranging from jurisprudence to medicine, the ground-breaking insights of More Than a Glitch are essential reading for anyone invested in building a more equitable future.

A guidebook to the institutional transformation of design theory and practice by restoring the long-excluded cultures of Indigenous, Black, and People of Color communities. From the excesses of world expositions to myths of better living through technology, modernist design, in its European-based guises, has excluded and oppressed the very people whose lands and lives it reshaped. Decolonizing Design first asks how modernist design has encompassed and advanced the harmful project of colonization-then shows how design might address these harms by recentering its theory and practice in global Indigenous cultures and histories. A leading figure in the movement to decolonize design, Dori Tunstall uses hard-hitting real-life examples and case studies drawn from over fifteen years of working to transform institutions to better reflect the lived experiences of Indigenous, Black, and People of Color communities. Her book is at once enlightening, inspiring, and practical, interweaving her lived experiences with extensive research to show what decolonizing design means, how it heals, and how to practice it in our institutions today. For leaders and practitioners in design institutions and communities, Tunstall's work demonstrates how we can transform the way we imagine and remake the world, replacing pain and repression with equity, inclusion, and diversity-in short, she shows us how to realize the infinite possibilities that decolonized design represents.

A breathtaking history of America's trail-blazing female science journalists-and the timely lessons they can teach us about equity, access, collaboration, and persistence. Writing for Their Lives tells the stories of women who pioneered the nascent profession of science journalism from the 1920s through the 1950s. Like the "hidden figures" of science, such as Dorothy Vaughan and Katherine Johnson, these women journalists, Marcel Chotkowski LaFollette writes, were also overlooked in traditional histories of science and journalism. But, at a time when science, medicine, and the mass media were expanding dramatically, Emma Reh, Jane Stafford, Marjorie Van de Water, and many others were explaining theories, discoveries, and medical advances to millions of readers via syndicated news stories, weekly columns, weekend features, and books-and they deserve the recognition they have long been denied. Grounded in extensive archival research and enlivened by passages of original correspondence, Writing for Their Lives addresses topics such as censorship, peer review, and news embargoes, while also providing intimate glimpses into the personal lives and adventures of mid-twentieth-century career women. They were single, married, or divorced; mothers with child-care responsibilities; daughters supporting widowed mothers; urban dwellers who lived through, and wrote about, the Great Depression, World War II, and the dawn of the Atomic Age-all the while, daring to challenge the arrogance and misogyny of the male scientific community in pursuit of information that could serve the public. Written at a time when trust in science is at a premium, Writing for Their Lives is an inspiring untold history that underscores just how crucial dedicated, conscientious journalists are to the public understanding and acceptance of scientific guidance and expertise.

An intimate collection of portraits of internationally renowned scientists and Nobel Prize winners, paired with interviews and personal stories. What makes a brilliant scientist? Who are the people behind the greatest discoveries of our time? Connecting art and science, photographer Herlinde Koelbl seeks the answers in this English translation of the German book Fascination of Science, an indelible collection of portraits of and interviews with sixty pioneering scientists of the twenty-first century. Koelbl's approach is intimate and accessible, and her highly personal interviews with her subjects reveal the forces (as well as the personal quirks) that motivate the scientists' work; for example, one wakes up at 3 am because her mind is calm then, another says his best ideas come to him in the shower. These glimpses into the scientists' lives and thinking add untold texture in this up-to-the-minute survey of the activities and progress that are currently taking place in the broad field of the natural sciences. Koelbl's interview subjects include Nobel Prize winners Dan Shechtman, Frances Arnold, Carolyn Bertozzi, and cover scientific fields from astronomy, biochemistry, and quantum physics to stem-cell research and AI. Beautifully bringing together art, science, and the written word, Fascination of Science is an inspiring read that shows how creativity, obsession, persistence, and passion drive the pioneering researchers of our time.

Breaking into the Boys' Club is the ultimate guide to success for women in business. No matter what stage in your career or what job position you hold, this book offers you practical, relatable ways to evaluate your work style and workplace culture in order to better understand behavior that may be holding you back from advancing in your field.

This new book is an historical examination of how popular magazines portrayed wage-earning women during the critical interwar years, 1918-1941. Although women had been entering the workplace for some time, their contributions to World War I, the passage of women's suffrage, postwar business expansion, and changing social morés put the cultural conversation over women's employment into high gear. Meanwhile, magazines were becoming more visual, more commercial, more affordable--and more influential. Young women looked to magazines for advice that they had previously gotten at home, while ads shifted their focus from information about products to social tableaux centred on idealised gender roles. Examining how magazines covered employed women during this critical period, this book identifies a number of emerging stereotypes and argues that women were reinscribed into a domestic discourse. Moreover, those stereotypes are echoed today in print media, television, film and the Internet.

First published in 1982, this pioneering work traces the transformation of "women's work" into wage labor in the United States, identifying the social, economic, and ideological forces that have shaped our expectations of what women do. Basing her observations upon the personal experience ofindividual American women set against the backdrop of American society, Alice Kessler-Harris examines the effects of class, ethnic and racial patterns, changing perceptions of wage work for women, and the relationship between wage-earning and family roles. In the 20th Anniversary Edition of thislandmark book, the author has updated the original and written a new Afterword.

A volume in Research on Women and Education (RWE) Series Editors Beverly Irby, Sam Houston State University and Janice Koch, Hofstra University Encouraging the participation of girls and women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) remains as vital today as it was in the 1970s. ... hence, the sub-title: "A Never Ending Story." This volume is about ongoing advocacy on behalf of the future workforce in fields that lie on the cutting edge of society's future.

Why are there so few women in science? In Breaking into the Lab, Sue Rosser uses the experiences of successful women scientists and engineers to answer the question of why elite institutions have so few women scientists and engineers tenured on their faculties. Women are highly qualified, motivated students, and yet they have drastically higher rates of attrition, and they are shying away from the fields with the greatest demand for workers and the biggest economic payoffs, such as engineering, computer sciences, and the physical sciences. Rosser shows that these continuing trends are not only disappointing, they are urgent: the U.S. can no longer afford to lose the talents of the women scientists and engineers, because it is quickly losing its lead in science and technology. Ultimately, these biases and barriers may lock women out of the new scientific frontiers of innovation and technology transfer, resulting in loss of useful inventions and products to society.

Equal opportunity in the workplace is thought to be the direct legacy of the civil rights and feminist movements and the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964. Yet, as Frank Dobbin demonstrates, corporate personnel experts--not Congress or the courts--were the ones who determined what equal opportunity meant in practice, designing changes in how employers hire, promote, and fire workers, and ultimately defining what discrimination is, and is not, in the American imagination.

How can academic institutions, corporations, and policymakers foster African American participation and advancement in engineering? For much of America's history, African Americans were discouraged or aggressively prevented from becoming scientists and engineers. Those who did enter STEM fields found that their inventions and discoveries were often neither recognized nor valued. Even today, particularly in the field of engineering, the participation of African American men and women is shockingly low, and some evidence indicates that the situation might be getting worse. In Changing the Face of Engineering, twenty-four eminent scholars address the underrepresentation of African Americans in engineering from a wide variety of disciplinary and professional perspectives while proposing workable classroom solutions and public policy initiatives.

Although women have made important inroads in science and engineering since the early 1970s, their progress in these fields has stalled over the past several years. This study looks at women in science and engineering careers in the 1970s and 1980s, documenting differences in career outcomes between men and women and between women of different races and ethnic backgrounds. The panel presents what is known about the following questions and explores their policy implications: In what sectors are female Ph.D.s employed? What salary disparities exist between men and women in these fields? How is marital status associated with career attainment? Does it help a career to have a postdoctoral appointment? How well are female scientists and engineers represented in management? Within the broader context of education and the labor market, the book provides detailed comparisons between men and women Ph.D.s in a number of measures: financial support for education, academic rank achieved, salary, and others.

In this timely and invaluable study, Sue Rosser chronicles the plight of women faculty across the USA noting the difficulties, double standards and backlash that they routinely face.

Scientific and engineering research is increasingly global, and international collaboration can be essential to academic success. Yet even as administrators and policymakers extol the benefits of global science, few recognize the diversity of international research collaborations and their participants, or take gendered inequalities into account. Women in Global Science is the first book to consider systematically the challenges and opportunities that the globalization of scientific work brings to U.S. academics, especially for women faculty. Kathrin Zippel looks to the STEM fields as a case study, where gendered cultures and structures in academia have contributed to an underrepresentation of women.

About half of the undergraduate and roughly 40 percent of graduate degree recipients in science and engineering are women. As increasing numbers of these women pursue research careers in science, many who choose to have children discover the unique difficulties of balancing a professional life in these highly competitive (and often male-dominated) fields with the demands of motherhood. Although this issue directly affects the career advancement of women scientists, it is rarely discussed as a professional concern, leaving individuals to face the dilemma on their own. To address this obvious but unacknowledged crisis--the elephant in the laboratory, according to one scientist--Emily Monosson, an independent toxicologist, has brought together 34 women scientists from overlapping generations and several fields of research--including physics, chemistry, geography, paleontology, and ecology, among others--to share their experiences.

Adele Marion Fielde, born in 1839, was a teacher, an evangelist, a social activist, scientist, lexicographer, writer and lecturer. As an American missionary in China, she became a local teacher and evangelist, struggling to reconcile her Baptist upbringing with her restless intellect. As an energetic social activist, she was a major figure in the suffragist movement, the abolition of the slave trade and the founding of two hospitals. As a scientist she conducted seminal research which is still discussed and studied today. This book provides an in-depth biographical study of the life of this remarkable woman, exploring her impact on her contemporary society, and her abiding influence on the scientific and academic communities to the present day.

This compelling history of what Laura Micheletti Puaca terms "technocratic feminism" traces contemporary feminist interest in science to the World War II and early Cold War years. During a period when anxiety about America's supply of scientific personnel ran high and when open support for women's rights generated suspicion, feminist reformers routinely invoked national security rhetoric and scientific "manpower" concerns in their efforts to advance women's education and employment. Despite the limitations of this strategy, it laid the groundwork for later feminist reforms in both science and society. The past and present manifestations of technocratic feminism also offer new evidence of what has become increasingly recognized as a "long women's movement." Drawing on an impressive array of archival collections and primary sources, Puaca brings to light the untold story of an important but largely overlooked strand of feminist activism.

The Space Age began just as the struggle for civil rights forced Americans to confront the long and bitter legacy of slavery, discrimination, and violence against African Americans. Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson utilized the space program as an agent for social change, using federal equal employment opportunity laws to open workplaces at NASA and NASA contractors to African Americans while creating thousands of research and technology jobs in the Deep South to ameliorate poverty. We Could Not Fail tells the inspiring, largely unknown story of how shooting for the stars helped to overcome segregation on earth. Richard Paul and Steven Moss profile ten pioneer African American space workers whose stories illustrate the role NASA and the space program played in promoting civil rights.

American AstronauticalSociety Eugene M. Emme Astronautical Literature Award   As NASA prepared for the launch of Apollo 11 in July 1969, many African American leaders protested the billions of dollars used to fund "space joyrides" rather than help tackle poverty, inequality, and discrimination at home. This volume examines such tensions as well as the ways in which NASA's goal of space exploration aligned with the cause of racial equality. It provides new insights into the complex relationship between the space program and the civil rights movement in the Jim Crow South and abroad.

Growing up on the south side of Chicago in a poor, black, working-class neighborhood, Delon Hampton realized early on that any success he would achieve in life, he had to create on his own. Having earned a place at college, he decided to focus on civil engineering. After completing his graduate and PhD studies at Purdue University, Hampton entered a career that was not always welcoming to an African American--first as an academic and then, in 1973, as the founder of Delon Hampton & Associates (DHA), an engineering consulting firm based in Washington, DC. Over the last forty years, DHA has risen to become one of America's leading civil engineering practices, particularly known for its award-winning work on transportation and infrastructure projects such as Dulles and Reagan National airports in DC, and the Atlanta and Los Angeles metro systems.

The real-life stories behind the gendering of science. The Madame Curie Complex gives fresh insight into the barriers and successes for women in science, and sheds light on the way our cultural ideas of gender have shaped the profession.

Lise Meitner (1878-1968) was a pioneer of nuclear physics and co-discoverer, with Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann, of nuclear fission. Braving the sexism of the scientific world, she joined the prestigious Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry and became a prominent member of the international physics community. Of Jewish origin, Meitner fled Nazi Germany for Stockholm in 1938 and later moved to Cambridge, England. Her career was shattered when she fled Germany, and her scientific reputation was damaged when Hahn took full credit-and the 1944 Nobel Prize-for the work they had done together on.

Edward A Bouchet was the first African-American to receive the doctorate in any field of knowledge in the United States and that area was physics. He was granted the degree in 1876 from Yale University making him at that time one of the few persons to hold the physics doctorate from an American university. Bouchet played a significant role in the education of African-Americans during the last quarter of the 19th century through his teaching and mentoring activities at the Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was one among a small number of African-Americans who achieved advanced training and education within decades of the American civil war. These people provided direction, leadership, and role models for what eventually became the civil/human rights movements.

The first book to examine the lives and accomplishments of women who have received the Nobel Prize--and those who contributed to prize-winning projects--this fascinating book introduces readers to Marie Curie, who unlocked the key to understanding the atomic nucleus, Emmy Noether, who laid the mathematical foundation for Eistein's theory of relativity, and others

This volume showcases the stories of eight women scientists who have achieved successful careers in the academy, industry and government. Breaking In offers insights into the challenges and barriers that women face in entering STEM, while also describing these women's motivations, the choices they made along their paths, and the intellectual satisfactions and excitement of scientific discovery they derive from their work

This book tells the story of a professional problem-solving group that for more than 25 years has empowered its members by providing practical and emotional support. The objective of "Group," as Ellen Daniell and six other members call their bimonthly gatherings, is cooperation in a competitive world. And the objective of Every Other Thursday is to encourage those who feel isolated or stressed in a work or academic setting to consider the benefits of such a group-a group in which everyone is on your side. Each of the high-achieving individuals in Group (including members of the National Academy of Sciences, a senior scientist at a prestigious research institute, and university professors and administrators) has found the support of the others to be an essential part of her own success.

Presents a diverse perspective of successful, inspirational and progressive women in science and engineering Women of today from 29 countries provide overviews of their successful careers, the challenges they faced, and offer advice. They have lived in the same era, and perhaps also the same environment as you. Successful Women Ceramic and Glass Scientists and Engineers: 100 Inspirational Profiles features women born in the 1920's to 1970's. Reflecting a diversity of backgrounds and different sectors of the workforce, their profiles include: ̶- Affiliation, points of contact, accomplishments (most-cited publication, most prestigious recognitions/awards, etc.), personal insight on her best career moment ̶  Brief biography, highlights of her successes, images from her career ̶  Personal commentary on her own career and pointers for younger scientists building careers.

Includes Elizabeth Lucas Pinckney (indigo plant dye), Martha Coston (signal flares), Fannie Farmer (standardized recipes), Madam C. J. Walker (hair-care products), S. Josephine Baker (child hygiene), Barbara McClintock (genetics), Bette Nesmith Graham (Liquid Paper), Grace Hopper (computer-programming language), Ruth Handler (the Barbie doll), and Stephanie Kwolek (Kevlar).

Contains 36 interviews with well-known scientists, including 19 Nobel laureates, Wolf Prize winners, and other luminaries. These in-depth conversations provide a glimpse into the greatest achievements in science during the past few decades, featuring stories of the discoveries, and showing the human drama behind them.

Aiming to inspire and empower, Beating the Odds highlights real-life success stories of technical women who made it. This book explores critical turning points that make or break careers and provides tools for putting insight into action — both for women and organizations supporting them.

A Devotion to Their Science includes biographical essays on twenty-three women who worked in atomic science during the first two decades of the twentieth century, including Marie Curie, Lise Meitner, Irene Joliot-Curie, and a host of lesser-known women scientists whose life stories have never before been told. The biographies highlight the lives and work of these women, noting their contributions and the challenges they faced and overcame. Taken together the essays record their collective experiences, highlighting the support network that developed among them and the reasons women were more predominant in this field than in other sciences in the early part of this century."

Why, Amy E. Foster asks, did it take two decades after the Soviet Union launched its first female cosmonaut for the United States to send its first female astronaut into space? In answering this question, Foster recounts the complicated history of integrating women into NASA's astronaut corps. NASA selected its first six female astronauts in 1978. Foster examines the political, technological, and cultural challenges that the agency had to overcome to usher in this new era in spaceflight. She shows how NASA had long developed progressive hiring policies but was limited in executing them by a national agenda to beat the Soviets to the moon, budget constraints, and cultural ideas about women's roles in America.

Carla Bailo, CEO of the Center for Automotive Research, and Terry Barclay, CEO of Inforum, bring together over 70 of the most influential women in the automotive industry to share their insight and advice. As with their first book, The Road to the Top, Bailo and Barclay interview women in positions of leadership throughout the industry from suppliers, to OEMs and academia. The Road Forward provides insight and advice to all professionals on the impact of the COVID pandemic by sharing their thoughts of the road ahead and what changes they have experienced professionally, personally, and socially. In addition, the leaders discuss resilience, professional network maintenance and growth, personal growth, diversity and inclusion, and sustainability.

An engaging, accessible survey of the ethical issues faced by engineers, designed for students The first engineering ethics textbook to use debates as the framework for presenting engineering ethics topics, this engaging, accessible survey explores the most difficult and controversial issues that engineers face in daily practice. Written by a leading scholar in the field of engineering and computer ethics, Deborah Johnson approaches engineering ethics with three premises: that engineering is both a technical and a social endeavor; that engineers don't just build things, they build society; and that engineering is an inherently ethical enterprise.

This book is a key introduction to ethics in engineering, providing professionals at all stages of their career with guidance on navigating the increasingly complex world of practising engineering ethically on an international scale. Engineering professionals face a duty to uphold reliable and trustworthy behaviour when working across all disciplines and industries. Accuracy and rigour are essential parts of the modern workplace, and are increasingly of concern to practising engineers. Using case studies to highlight examples of issues within the workplace and how these can be appropriately handled, this book is an accessible tool through which engineers can gain confidence in dealing with ethical dilemmas in the workplace. Touching upon safety, risk, artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, and intellectual property, alongside sustainability and environmental matters, the book focuses on hot topics which are fast becoming day-to-day issues dealt with by engineers.

Global Engineering Ethics introduces the fundamentals of ethics in a context specific to engineering without privileging any one national or cultural conception of ethics. Numerous case studies from around the world help the reader to see clearly the relevance of design, safety, and professionalism to engineers. Engineering increasingly takes place in global contexts, with industrial and research teams operating across national and cultural borders. This adds a layer of complexity to already challenging ethical issues. This book is essential reading for anyone wanting to understand or communicate the ethics of engineering, including students, academics, and researchers, and is indispensable for those involved in international and cross-cultural environments. Takes a global-values approach to engineering ethics rather than prioritizing any one national or regional culture.

On the fiftieth anniversary of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, Raymond F. Gregory evaluates our progress towards the full implementation of one of the law's key provisions: Title VII, which prohibits discrimination in the workplace. Gregory looks at key litigation as the law has come to include discrimination based on more than just race, but on gender, age, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. From the segregationist policies of the past to lingering workplace oppression in the form of sexual harassment, age discrimination, and religious conflicts, the places we work have always been the scenes of some of our greatest civil rights battles. This study of the landmark cases and rulings, and debates surrounding workplace discrimination of all kinds sheds light on the cultural tensions we grapple with in America. Gregory also looks at the broader history of oppression suffered, recognized, and overcome, in the 50 years since this country passed its Civil Rights Act.

Historically black colleges and universities are adept at training scientists. Marybeth Gasman and Thai-Huy Nguyen follow ten HBCU programs that have grown their student cohorts and improved performance. These science departments furnish a bold new model for other colleges that want to better serve African American students

"The classic and recent essays gathered here will challenge scholars in the natural sciences, philosophy, sociology, anthropology, and women's studies to examine the role of racism in the construction and application of the sciences. Harding... has also created a useful text for diverse classroom settings." -- Library Journal

Creating justice-centered organizations is the next frontier in DEI. This book shows how to go beyond compliance to address harm, share power, and create equity. Traditional DEI work has not succeeded at dismantling systems that perpetuate harm and exclude BIPOC groups. Proponents of DEI have put too much focus on HR solutions, such as increasing representation, and not enough emphasis on changing the deeper organizational systems that perpetuate inequities-in other words, on justice. DEIJ work diverges from traditional metrics-driven DEI work and requires a new approach to effectively dismantle power structures. This thought-provoking, solutions-oriented book offers strategic advice on how to adopt a justice mindset, anticipate and address resistance, shift power dynamics, and create a psychologically safe organizational culture.

Caroline Criado Perez's Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men is a landmark, prize-winning, international bestselling examination of how a gender gap in data perpetuates bias and disadvantages women. Data is fundamental to the modern world. From economic development to health care to education and public policy, we rely on numbers to allocate resources and make crucial decisions. But because so much data fails to take into account gender, because it treats men as the default and women as atypical, bias and discrimination are baked into our systems. And women pay tremendous costs for this insidious bias: in time, in money, and often with their lives.

Women in Science and Technology: Confronting Inequalities comprehensively explores women's status in the Science and Technology (S & T) domain by rigorously analysing and interpreting extensive recent information on major areas such as engineering, medicine, physical sciences, biosciences and mathematics. The book forcefully demonstrates that gender-based differences and expectations play the determining role in limiting women's participation in S & T. These exist in various forms, from making subject choices in school and opting for specific disciplines in college to embracing specific career avenues such as scientific research. This book shows how the construction of gendered identities is perpetuated through a masculine culture in the informal environment of elite educational institutes and in major S & T workplaces such as academia and research laboratories, which serve together to exclude women from peer groups and opportunities for advancement.

Although more women than men participate in higher education in the United States, the same is not true when it comes to pursuing careers in science and engineering. To Recruit and Advance: Women Students and Faculty in Science and Engineering identifies and discusses better practices for recruitment, retention, and promotion for women scientists and engineers in academia. Seeking to move beyond yet another catalog of challenges facing the advancement of women in academic science and engineering, this book describes actions actually taken by universities to improve the situation for women. Serving as a guide, it examines the following: Recruitment of female undergraduates and graduate students. Ways of reducing attrition in science and engineering degree programs in the early undergraduate years. Improving retention rates of women at critical transition points, from undergraduate to graduate student, from graduate student to postdoc, from postdoc to first faculty position. This guide offers numerous solutions that may be of use to other universities and colleges and will be an essential resource for anyone interested in improving the position of women students, faculty, deans, provosts, and presidents in science and engineering.

This innovative work critically studies the contemporary problems of one segment of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education. The lack of a diverse U.S.-based pool of talent entering the field of engineering education has been termed a crisis by academic and political leaders. Engineering remains one of the most sex segregated academic arenas; the intersection of gendered and racialized exclusion results in very few Latina engineers.

This book is aimed at engineering academics worldwide, who are attempting to bring social justice into their work and practice, or who would like to but don't know where to start. This is the first book dedicated specifically to University professionals on Engineering and Social Justice, an emerging and exciting area of research and practice. An international team of multidisciplinary authors share their insights and invite and inspire us to reformulate the way we work. Each chapter is based on research and yet presents the outcomes of scholarly studies in a user oriented style. We look at all three areas of an engineering academic's professional role: research, teaching and community engagement.

Women and minorities have entered higher paying occupations, but their overall earnings still lag behind those of white men. Why? Looking nationwide at workers across all employment levels and occupations, the author examines the unexpected ways that prejudice and workplace discrimination continue to plague the labor market. He probes the mechanisms by which race and sex groups are sorted into "appropriate" jobs, showing how the resulting segregation undercuts earnings. He also uses an innovative integration of race-sex queuing and segmented-market theories to show how economic and social contexts shape these processes. His analysis reveals how race, sex, stereotyping, and devaluation interact to create earnings disparities, shedding new light on a vicious cycle that continues to the leave women and minorities behind.

The authors used various critical theories to situate and make visible the lives of women of color in such disciplines and workplace contexts like mathematics, science, engineering, NASA, academia, government agencies, and others. They skillfully centered women and their experiences at the intersection of their identity dimensions of race, class, gender, and their respective discipline. While the disciplines and career contexts vary, the oppression, alienation, and social inequities were common realities for all. Despite the challenges, the women were resilient and persevered with tenacity, a strong sense of self as a person of color, and reliance on family, community, mentors, and spirituality.

Why are there so few women scientists? Persisting differences between women's and men's experiences in science make this question as relevant today as it ever was. This book sets out to answer this question, and to propose solutions for the future. Based on extensive research, it emphasizes that science is an intensely social activity. Despite the scientific ethos of universalism and inclusion, scientists and their institutions are not immune to the prejudices of society as a whole. By presenting women's experiences at all key career stages - from childhood to retirement - the authors reveal the hidden barriers, subtle exclusions and unwritten rules of the scientific workplace, and the effects, both professional and personal, that these have on the female scientist. This important book should be read by all scientists - both male and female - and sociologists, as well as women thinking of embarking on a scientific career.

How have they fared in the most male-dominated profession in America? This is the first book to answer these questions. It explores the backgrounds, family lives, work experiences, and attitudes of engineers in order to explain the unequal patterns of career development for women, who generally hold lower positions and receive fewer promotions than their male counterparts. McIlwee and Robinson synthesize two theoretical approaches frequently used to explain the status of women in the workforce gender role and structural theories providing new insights into improving women s careers in traditionally male occupations

Women scientists working in small, for-profit companies are eight times more likely than their university counterparts to head a research lab. Why? Laurel Smith-Doerr reveals that, contrary to widely held assumptions, strong career opportunities for women and minorities do not depend on the formal policies and long job ladders that large, hierarchical bureaucracies provide. In fact, highly internally linked biotechnology firms are far better workplaces for female scientists (when compared to university settings or established pharmaceutical companies), offering women richer opportunities for career advancement. Based on quantitative analyses of more than two-thousand life scientists' careers and qualitative studies of scientists in eight biotech and university settings, Smith-Doerr's work shows clearly that the network form of organization, rather than fostering "old boy networks," provides the organizational flexibility that not only stimulates innovation, but also aids women's success.

Women engineers have been in the public limelight for decades, yet we have surprisingly little historically grounded understanding of the patterns of employment and education of women in this field. Most studies are either policy papers or limited to statistical analyses. Moreover, the scant historical research so far available emphasizes the individual, single and unique character of those women working in engineering, often using anecdotal evidence but ignoring larger issues like the patterns of the labour market and educational institutions. Crossing Boundaries, Building Bridges offers answers to the question why women engineers have required special permits to pass through the male guarded gates of engineering and examines how they have managed this.

This book features influential scholarly research and technical contributions, professional trajectories, disciplinary shifts, personal insights, and a combination of these from a group of remarkable women within mechanical engineering. Combined, these chapters tell an important story about the dynamic field of mechanical engineering in the areas of energy and the environment, as seen from the perspective of some of its most extraordinary women scientists and engineers. The volume shares with the Women in Engineering and Science Series the primary aim of documenting and raising awareness of the valuable, multi-faceted contributions of women engineers and scientists, past and present, to these areas. Women in mechanical engineering and energy and the environment are historically relevant and continue to lead these fields as passionate risk takers, entrepreneurs, innovators, educators, and researchers.

This book recovers both historical and contemporary accounts of women's lived experiences of technology, from Ada Lovelace and Hedy Lamarr to women working in the tech industry today, juxtaposing those stories with larger cultural representations of women and technology.

This book illustrates the importance of focusing on the choices, constraints, and agency of women in science to understand which women, under what conditions, with what tools, successfully manage to navigate science or leave the discipline. The chapters in this volume apply the metaphor of the road to a variety of fields and moments that are characterized as exits, pathways, and potholes, which refocuses our attention on the challenges posed by and the conditions of scientific careers.

The Second Edition of this best selling book provides a comprehensive examination of the role that gender plays in work environments. This book differs from others by comparing women′s and men′s work status, addressing contemporary issues within a historical perspective, incorporating comparative material from other countries, recognizing differences in the experiences of women and men from different racial and ethnic backgrounds. Relying on both qualitative and quantitative data, the authors seek to link social scientific ideas about workers′ lives, sex inequality, and gender to the real-world workplace. This new edition contains updated statistics, timely cartoons, and presents new scholarship in the field. It also provides a renewed focus on reasons for variability in inequality across workplaces.

Despite decades of government, university, and employer efforts to close the gender gap in engineering, women make up only 11 percent of practicing engineers in the United States. What factors influence women graduates' decisions to enter the engineering workforce and either to stay in or leave the field as their careers progress? Researchers are both tapping existing data and fielding new surveys to help answer these questions. On April 24, 2013, the National Research Council Committee on Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine held a workshop to explore emerging research and to discuss career pathways and outcomes for women who have received bachelor's degrees in engineering. Participants included academic researchers and representatives from the Department of Labor, National Science Foundation, and Census Bureau, as well as several engineering professional societies. "Career Choices of Female Engineers" summarizes the presentations and discussions of the workshop.

In order for the United States to maintain the global leadership and competitiveness in science and technology that are critical to achieving national goals, we must invest in research, encourage innovation, and grow a strong and talented science and technology workforce. Expanding Underrepresented Minority Participation explores the role of diversity in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workforce and its value in keeping America innovative and competitive.

Surmounting the Barriers: Ethnic Diversity in Engineering Education is the summary of a workshop held in September 2013 to take a fresh look at the impediments to greater diversification in engineering education. The workshop brought together educators in engineering from two- and four-year colleges and staff members from the three sponsoring organizations: the National Science Foundation, the National Academy of Engineering and the American Society for Engineering Education. While the goal of diversifying engineering education has long been recognized, studied, and subjected to attempted interventions, progress has been fitful and slow. This report discusses reasons why past recommendations to improve diversity had not been adopted in full or in part.

Written by an acknowledged expert in the field of STEM mentoring, the book constitutes a virtual consultant that enables readers to diagnose the issues they face, identify priorities, and implement appropriate practices to achieve their goals.The book describes the real and perceived barriers that underrepresented students--to include women, students of color, transfer students, and first-generation college students--encounter when considering enrollment, or participating, in science courses; considers the issues they face at the various transitions in their education, from entering college to declaring a major and moving on to a profession; and sets out the range of mentoring options available to program designers.

This book seeks to understand the complexities of talented and high-performing Black girls and women in STEM across the P-20 trajectory. Analogously, this volume aims to understand the intersections between giftedness, its identification, and racial, gender, and academic discipline identities. The dearth of literature on this subject suggests that Black girls and women have unique experiences in gifted programming, in large part because of factors associated with gifted programs in general. Key factors affecting Black students, and Black girls in particular, are identification and underrepresentation. These factors can be shaped by interlocking systems of racism, classism, gender bias, and other forms of oppression.