Career Advancement Through Academic Commercialization: Acknowledging and Reducing Barriers for Women Engineering Faculty

Abstract

Although schools of engineering are increasingly considering patenting, licensing, and commercialization in faculty bids for tenure and promotion, women candidates participate in these activities at disproportionately lower rates than their male counterparts. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] As research has shown that inventions by women are frequently designed to address important social problems, addressing the gap in engagement in academic commercialization activities has growing societal relevance. 2,8 This gender gap can largely be explained by the significant obstacles that women faculty in engineering face as they advance their careers and as they engage in academic commercialization.9-11 Barriers such as gender discrimination, attitudinal and behavioral factors, work-life balance issues, and exclusion from networks impact the ability of women faculty to continue in the field, engage in academic commercialization, and ultimately advance their careers. 3,7,8,[12][13][14][15][16][17] This paper aims to synthesize relevant literature pertaining to impediments to academic commercialization and career advancement for women faculty in engineering and science. The purpose is to not only raise awareness of the likely origins of these issues, but to recommend ways that staff, faculty, departments, and universities can create a more equitable career trajectory for women faculty in engineering and science. Immediate and long term shifts in individual and institutional bias, policy, leadership, and training have the potential to make a significant difference in engineering innovation for social and environmental change.

Action on Diversity: A Content Analysis of ASEE Conference Papers, 2015–2016

“…Some examples of the questions being asked in these publications aimed at understanding which diversity-related policies worked and why (Beddoes, Schimpf, & Pawley, 2015;Camargo, Wood, & Layne, 2015), and how can institutional policy better support diverse groups (Turrentine, 2015). It is important to note that many of the publications related to policy focused on fomenting a diverse faculty, specifically in STEM.…”

Improving Gender Equity in Engineering—Perspectives from Academia and Literature

“…• Fewer leadership positions [9], [12] • Overrepresented in lower ranks [8], [13] • Pay gap [8], [12] • Barriers to obtaining promotion/tenure [12],…”

“…Against women [5], [13], [15], [16] and women from historically underrepresented groups [6] Not specified 2 [17], [18] Related to research 1 Less work in commercialization, fewer publications, and women are concentrated in non-research-intensive universities [13] Changing careers 1 [13] Family sacrifices 1 [19] Receive fewer accolades 1 [12] The biggest disparity identified in the literature was the underrepresentation of women in faculty positions, specifically the lack of women in higher faculty ranks [3]- [9] and postdoctoral positions [7]. However, once women are in higher faculty ranks, they are not exempt from the disparities that women in lower ranks face [14].…”

“…The absence of women of color faculty and mentors can have a negative effect on young women of color wanting to pursue a career in engineering [11]. Women face disparities related to research, in which they are found to be concentrated in non-research-intensive universities, which results in them producing fewer publications than men and doing less work in commercialization [13]. Women receive fewer awards and accolades for their work [12].…”

“…Our findings are summarized in Table 2. • Gender bias [5], [6], [8], [9], [12], [13], [16] • Biased evaluations [6], [7], [12], [14] • Implicit bias [5], [7], [12] • Racial bias [6], [16] • Explicit bias [7] Preconceived notions about women (not including bias) 8…”