From Dorothy Hodgkin, who developed protein crystallography to
determine the structure of compounds such as vitamin B-12 and
insulin, to Rosalind Franklin, who contributed to the discovery of
DNA structure, women have always been an integral part of
science.
UCLA administrators say they have been working both to increase
the number of female professors, as well as maintain an environment
that encourages female professors to continue to teach at the
university.
“We are making every effort to really focus in on building
our recruitment pools … (where) women will feel this is an
environment where they would like to work and they can see
themselves as being able to build a career here,” said Rosina
Becerra, associate vice chancellor of faculty diversity.
The issue of women’s role in science sprung to the
forefront of the public’s mind this year, in particular when
the president of Harvard University commented at an economic
conference in January that there were innate differences in men and
women that could explain why fewer women followed math and science
careers.
He later clarified his statements, saying women can succeed in
math and science.
In addition, research by a UC Irvine group published in November
2004 showed there is no difference in general intelligence between
women and men.
All the media attention highlighted the fact that at many
universities across the country, men outnumber women in
professorships, tenure and senior research positions.
Sara Tolbert, a professor in the department of chemistry and
biochemistry, Elma Gonzalez, a professor in the department of
ecology and evolutionary biology, and Becerra said the smaller
number of female science professors at UCLA may be partly
attributed to the lower proportion of female applicants for such
positions.
The availability of female professors among the different
sciences fluctuates, and the number of available women with
doctoral degrees in biology, for instance, has increased in the
past 10 years, Becerra said.
Yet the number of females applying for professor positions in
the department of chemistry and biochemistry at UCLA is small
compared to male applicants, Tolbert said.
“I have a guess, which is that being a faculty member,
regardless of your sex, is an incredibly large amount of work.
Women are saying, “˜I don’t know how I can balance
family and work and do this. If I work in industry I can balance
family and work,'” she said.
According to Tolbert, 40 hours a week working in industry will
allow one to make a sufficient advancement in research, whereas 40
hours a week in academia doesn’t dent a professor’s
workload.
This can be difficult when trying to balance family life with
work.
A UCLA Gender Equity Summit held last year discussed ways in
which the university could improve recruitment, retention and
promotion of female professors.
The findings of a gender equity reporter, discussed at that
summit, stated that women faculty have been increasing since the
1970s by about 1 percent per year.
The findings state that if this trend continues, equality
between male and female faculty proportions will take more than 50
years.
A similar forum was held on May 13 of this year and was attended
by department chairs and deans in the colleges of physical and life
sciences and engineering.
The forum focused on similar issues, such as creating a
welcoming environment for women.
“This is certainly an area we are focusing on. We are very
much aware that, besides issues of recruitment, there are other
issues in environment we are working on, such as child care,”
Becerra said.
UCLA is planning on adding about 100 more child care slots by
next year. These spots will be available for faculty, students and
staff.
“The biggest thing that UCLA so badly needs to solve is it
needs much more on-campus child care,” Tolbert said.
More complicated issues, such as the appeal of industry and the
expensive housing in Los Angeles complicate the reasons why there
are fewer female faculty in certain areas of science then male
faculty, though these issues pertain to both sexes.
Not all such issues are within the control of UCLA, but day care
is.
“There are very few institutional things that could help
the balance, but child care is one,” said Tolbert.
She added that, among other related issues, many of which UCLA
cannot fix, is the fact that Los Angeles is expensive for
families.
In general, the lack of applicants makes the issue of increasing
female faculty size complicated. Becerra, Tolbert and Gonzalez
agree that UCLA is a friendly environment, specifically toward
female faculty.
“It’s not a simple problem. If it were simple, we
would have solved it by now. It’s going to take everybody
““ faculty, administrators, professors ““ having a
commitment to diversity and commitment to inspiring young people.
… Showing them the ways life would be better if we have a more
diverse faculty,” Gonzalez said.
UCLA says it is continuing to do its part in diversifying its
faculty.
“We are looking at a broad range of issues that will not
only bring more women scientists to UCLA, but once they are here
will have them want to remain here,” Becerra said.