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News and Views
Fall 1998 Volume 8, Issue 2
Research and Development
POWRE Grant Focuses on Women Scientists
The Center for Women's Studies and Gender Research received a grant for$65,274 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for a Workshop on Professional Opportunities for Women in Research and Education (POWRE). Sue Rosser, the Principal Investigator and Director of Women's Studies, brought together 30 scientists from different disciplines throughout the country and about 40 program officers from NSF for a workshop held March 30-April1, 1998 in Washington, DC. The workshop focused on the best ways for the National Science Foundation to create a program to facilitate women scientists in the formulation and development of their careers and upon changing institutional climates to be more favorable to women. Participants in the workshop attempted to address the following questions:
- Is the overarching goal of POWRE appropriate?
- Is the goal clearly articulated, understood, and accepted in the scientific community both inside and outside the foundation?
- Is the program with four categories as currently structured, the best way to meet the goal?
- Does the current program facilitate advancement at crucial junctures in the lives/careers of women scientists?
- How should the wide range of disciplinary/sub-disciplinary differences regarding representation of women, climate issues, and disciplinary cultures within science, engineering, and mathematics be addressed by POWRE?
- Given the limited nature of funding available for POWRE, how should the resources best be allocated to catalyze progress of women scientists?
- How should POWRE be assessed/evaluated to comply with Government Performance Regulations for Assessment (GPRA), as well as to provide useful information for future program planning?
- What should the directions for POWRE's evolution be over the next five and ten year periods?
The workshop involved intense discussion of these issues, primed by presentation of relevant data by researchers who specialized in each area. The recommendations from the workshop and the final report will be used by the NSF Program Officers to write the new Program Announcement for POWRE. The group also recommended that the Foundation find long-term strategies to improve the environment for women scientists and engineers in academia and to encourage female-friendly institutional changes which will lead to attraction and retention of more women and more ethnic diversity among scientists, engineers, and mathematicians.
