The University of Michigan
has a long-standing concern about
the under-representation of women, including women of color, in the fields
of science, engineering, and mathematics. For the past fifteen years, the
University of Michigan's Women in Science and
Engineering Program (WISE) at the Center for the Education of
Women (CEW), in collaboration with UM
academic units, has developed numerous intervention programs, conducted
research, and served as advocates for girls and women along the entire
scientific education pipeline, from elementary school through graduate
school and beyond, to their first professional appointment.
Despite this abundance of opportunity for study, the University of Michigan
(UM), similar to other institutions nationally, still experiences a significant
gender stratification among science and engineering disciplines. The phenomenon
of "the higher, the fewer" is very evident within UM's engineering
and physical science departments, both at the graduate level and, consequently,
at the faculty level. In the 1994 fall semester, only 11% of the doctoral
students within the College of
Engineering were female, while 5% of the
faculty were women. Likewise, within the physics and applied physics department,
21% of the graduate students and 3% of the faculty were female. In chemistry,
33% of the graduate students were women while 6% of the faculty were female.
The Graduate Experience Project was initiated, with the assistance of the
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, to
improve the recruitment and retention of
women graduate students in the engineering, physics, applied physics and
chemistry disciplines at UM. This collaborative effort draws on the University's
strong academic and research backgrounds to evaluate the reasons why women
graduate students select to attend the University and whether they leave
prior to degree completion. This information is used to develop interventions,
systemic or not, to assist women reach their academic and
professional potential.
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