Newswise — University of Illinois at Chicago researchers have received a $1.2 million National Science Foundation grant to study how social and professional networks affect the careers of women scientists and engineers.
Julia Melkers and Eric Welch, UIC associate professors of public administration, and assistant professor Sharon Mastracci will use the three-year grant to focus on such networks in academia and government.
Melkers said anecdotal evidence suggests that women scientists and engineers advance further if they network strategically early in their careers, but the researchers want to understand why.
"The networks that offer resources and direct participation are opaque and complex," she said. "We seek to open the 'black box' of how networks operate."
Although women account for more than half of the professionals in biological and social sciences, their numbers are disproportionately low in other scientific fields, the researchers said.
Women account for only 21 percent of engineering faculty members in the United States, according to NSF statistics. The growing number of women who hold doctoral degrees in science and engineering hold fewer academic positions than men, particularly at higher ranks, and are more likely than men to work part-time or not at all.
The study will address:
--The effect of networking on women's productivity, faculty rank, organizational position, salaries and job satisfaction.
--Characteristics of networks in specific disciplines and their influence on the professional advancement of women.
--Factors that lead scientists and engineers, particularly women scientists, to actively participate in formal and informal networks.
--Possible differences between women's and men's participation in science networks.
The researchers will map the characteristics of networks; correlate the characteristics with productivity, rank, position, salary and job satisfaction; and do a comparison with the same data for men.
UIC ranks among the nation's top 50 universities in federal research funding and is Chicago's largest university with 25,000 students, 12,000 faculty and staff, 15 colleges and the state's major public medical center. A hallmark of the campus is the Great Cities Commitment, through which UIC faculty, students and staff engage with community, corporate, foundation and government partners in hundreds of programs to improve the quality of life in metropolitan areas around the world. For more information about UIC, please visit http://www.uic.edu.
RSS