Publication Date

6-2010

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Technical Reports: UTEP-CS-10-16

Abstract

Considering both the percentage of science and engineering PhDs awarded to women in the twenty year period 1974-2004 and the data from the National Science 2006 Survey of Earned Doctorates 1974-2004, the U.S. National Academies noted that women in 2004 have attained equality with men in their representation in the Social Sciences and Life Sciences but are still lagging in Physical and Computing Sciences and Engineering. In the top 50 engineering departments in the U.S., women earn one-fourth of the PhDs granted in Chemical Engineering and 15% in engineering overall (Handelsman et al, 2005). Although women constitute about half of the total workforce in the U.S. and receive half of the degrees in certain scientific fields, they number only one-fifth of the nation's scientific and technical workers (US-NA, 2007). The University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez and the Center for Computational Science at the University of Houston Downtown have embarked on a major effort to change these statistics. This report summarizes the results of the NSF BPC-DP Demonstration project "Paving the Road to Professorship for Female Students" (CNS 0739213) (now known as FemProf) during the period of February, 2008 to June, 2010. This program between the two institutions stems from collaborative efforts with the NSF BPC Computing Alliance for Hispanic Serving Institutions (CAHSI) (CNS 0540592, CNS- 0837556). FemProf is a comprehensive program engaging female undergraduates in a mentoring program that involves a focus on: research experiences, cultural, gender and workplace biases/issues workshops and seminars combined with summer internships - all focused on preparing for success in graduate school and directed to future participation in the professoriate. This report summarizes the main results of the project.

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