From the issue dated July 6, 2001
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More Women Teach Science in Colleges, Study FindsUniversity science is apparently less of a boys club than it used to be. A new study of natural-science programs at 136 colleges that concentrate on undergraduate education has concluded that more women are teaching science at the college level than ever before.A report on the study, "Academic Excellence: The Sourcebook -- A Study of the Role of Research in the Natural Sciences at Undergraduate Institutions," said that over the last decade, about 40 percent of new, tenure-track science professors were women, compared with 21 percent in the 1980's. "The predominantly undergraduate institutions have gone much further than their research-institution counterparts in making space for women," said Michael P. Doyle, vice president of the Research Corporation, which conducted the study. Copies of the report are available for $50 each at the company's Web site (http://www.rescorp.org/pubs.html). "In general, there's been a trend of more women entering science and of science departments being friendlier to women," said John Fuller, a senior fellow at the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. "They've realized that the sky didn't fall, that science didn't get less good, because they let women in." The 10-year study also found that the most prominent undergraduate institutions -- as measured by SAT scores and other admissions criteria -- are now stressing faculty research nearly as much as teaching. "There's been a sense that research interfered with teaching," said Mr. Doyle. But "in an undergraduate environment, research promotes a career in science." Institutions that focus on undergraduate education have learned that "good teaching and good research is the same thing," said Mr. Fuller. "It's not a line you can draw." http://chronicle.com Section: Short Subjects Page: A9
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Copyright © 2001 by The Chronicle of Higher Education