Tuesday, March 22, 2011

MIT reports progress of women at school

By James M. Connolly

Research at MIT indicates that in the last decade, the number of women faculty in science and engineering has nearly doubled, and women have an increasingly positive experience at the school, but there are still issues remaining in terms of recruitment, retention and equity of women faculty members, according to a report by the school.

Similar studies had been conducted in 1999 and 2002, with the new study being focused on the status of women faculty in the School of Science and the School of Engineering. It was commissioned as part of MIT’s 150th anniversary, and coincides with this week’s symposium, “Leaders in Science and Engineering: the Women of MIT.”

The earlier reports had showed that women faculty members “felt professionally marginalized — through access to fewer resources and exclusion from departmental decision-making, for example,” according to the school’s new office. The new report, however, shows that progress toward resolving those issues has been made, the institute said. Since 1999, the number of women faculty increased from 30 to 52 in science and 32 to 60 in engineering and in both schools women now hold several senior administrative positions, according to the news office.