Our primary goal is to transform Montana State University and broaden the participation of women faculty in STEM and underrepresented areas of Social and Behavioral Science (SBS). Currently 33% of the MSU Tenured and Tenure Track faculty are women. If you'd like to access or analyze MSU faculty data (by rank, gender, and department) click here.
Our second goal centers on our novel application of Self-Determination Theory’s tenets of “basic psychological need-support,” whereby we will test the process of institutional transformation, thus generating direct empirical evidence for whether and how our initiatives bring about cultural transformation. Our objectives are
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Enhance Research Capacity and Opportunity
ADVANCE institutionalizes systematic support for women faculty in STEM/SBS fields through grant pre-proposal assistance, establishes a mentoring network of successful grantees, and establishes needed policy infrastructures to facilitate women engaging in inter-disciplinary research.
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Enhance Work-Life Integration
ADVANCE generates new programs, such as a sick childcare network and dual career assistance program, and builds on existing programs, such as providing more flexible solutions for work-life integration in general and during major life transitions.
ADVANCE promotes respectful communication, sensitivity to the dynamics of relationships within a culture, and respect for the values and beliefs of cultures. It comes from the active and vigilant practice of maintaining cultural humility, and represents active attention and ongoing mindfulness. To realize this, we will implement diversity depth hires, build an equity search toolkit and equity advisor program, and continue to engage the MSU community in unconscious bias education.
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Invoking the metaphor of a “runner’s track” suggests women faculty in STEM/SBS frequently find themselves on an “outside” track with hurdles to overcome and a longer distance to run than their male counterparts. We aim to transform MSU by removing those hurdles and advancing women to an equal staring point. |
