The University of Chicago and Northwestern University have established a new joint effort to recruit and retain women faculty in science and technology fields. The Chicago Collaboration for Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics will include several initiatives. The Navigating the Professoriate program is designed for tenure-track assistant professors in STEM fields. The program will use mentoring and other strategies to help women prepare for the tenuring process. There is also the Beyond Tenure program for women who are associate and full professors with tenure to help them manage their careers for future success.
Mary Harvey, associate provost for program development at the University of Chicago, stated, “This is partly about helping women advance into leadership roles. It’s also very much about helping them develop their networks. In some disciplines in the sciences, women are few and far between, and they feel a tremendous sense of isolation. It’s also about recruitment, because having a vigorous program like this in place will help us bring more women scientists onto our faculty.”
The two universities applied for a grant from the National Science Foundation to fund the Chicago Collaboration. But the program did not receive federal funds. However, the universities believed that the program had great merit and decided to go ahead with the venture only with university funding.