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Harvard University announces
Task Forces on Women Faculty and Women in Science and Engineering
Membership and Charge to Task Force on Women in Science and Engineering
February 3, 2005
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Press Contacts:
Whitney Espich
Lucie McNeil Questions/comments: Task Force on Women Faculty: wf@harvard.edu Task Force on Women in Science and Engineering: wise@harvard.edu More information: Overview Membership and Charge to Task Force on Women Faculty Membership and Charge to Task Force on Women in Science and Engineering 1991 FAS Standing Committee on the Status of Women report, "Women in Science at Harvard; Part I: Junior Faculty and Graduate Students" Biographical Information |
Charge
To help understand and address the under-representation of women at various academic career stages in the sciences and engineering at Harvard University, Harvard has announced the formation of a Task Force on Women in Science and Engineering. The membership of the Task Force will be drawn from the several Faculties that conduct teaching and research in science and engineering; it will be chaired by Barbara J. Grosz, Higgins Professor of Natural Sciences in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences' Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Dean of Science at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.
The Task Force is charged with identifying factors that contribute in some way to the under-representation of women at various career stages; compiling successful strategies developed by other institutions or scholars to counter these factors and tailoring them as necessary to meet Harvard's specific challenges; formulating new programs and approaches; and, finally, recommending specific actions that the University should take to implement these strategies and track their effectiveness. This examination of issues relating to women faculty will include attention to the particular challenges and barriers faced by minority women pursuing academic careers in science and engineering.
Specifically, the Task Force, operating with the assistance of working groups focused on specific career stages, disciplines, or problems, and chaired by Task Force members, will aim to accomplish the following:
- Identify and encourage excellent women to apply for junior faculty positions; address issues in search processes and recruitment that would enhance the identification and hiring of outstanding women scientists.
- Identify and implement best practices for supporting women during their junior faculty years, ensuring equity, and maximizing chances of achieving tenure.
- Recruit and retain women senior faculty and support their research endeavors, in part by ensuring equity in equipment, lab space, secretarial and research support, access to graduate students and post-doctoral students, and salaries.
- Ensure that the awarding of named chairs, appointments to leadership positions, honorific nominations, etc., are conducted fairly and with adequate attention to problems of implicit bias.
- Ensure that senior women science faculty have opportunities to participate fully in all large-scale science initiatives, including explicit consideration for leadership roles in all such endeavors undertaken by Harvard or jointly with another institution. Support science initiatives proposed by women equitably.
- Attend to differences in culture, professional norms, and career paths among the scientific disciplines, departments, and Schools that affect differently the ability of women scientists to succeed in those fields.
The Task Force will be expected to consider and make recommendations concerning the most effective means of accomplishing the goals outlined above, taking into account best practices and proven effectiveness. While careful analysis and thoughtful deliberation will be required to ensure that the University adopts approaches that are effective and durable, it is expected that the Task Force will complete its work by the end of the 2004-05 academic year, and that its recommendations will be considered for implementation in a timely manner, with most implemented at the start of the 2005-06 academic year, or sooner if practicable.
Membership
Barbara J. Grosz, Higgins Professor of Natural Sciences in the Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and Dean of Science at the Radcliffe Institute, Chair
Catherine Dulac, Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Susan Dymecki, Assistant Professor of Genetics, Faculty of Medicine
Howard Georgi, Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Laurie H. Glimcher, Professor of Medicine and Irene Heinz Given Professor of Immunology, Faculties of Medicine and Public Health
Michael E. Greenberg, Professor of Neurobiology and Neurology, Faculty of Medicine
Paula A. Johnson, Associate Professor of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine
Elena M. Kramer, John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Natural Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Megan Murray, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology and Assistant Professor of Medicine, Faculties of Public Health and Medicine
Venkatesh Narayanamurti, Dean of the Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences, John A. and Elizabeth S. Armstrong Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and Professor of Physics, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Lisa Randall, Professor of Physics, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Suzanne Walker, Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Faculty of Medicine
Drew Faust, Dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and Lincoln Professor of History, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, ex officio
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