A Multi-Million Dollar Opportunity: How Social Psychology Can ADVANCE the Participation of Women Faculty in STEM

Abstract

NSF ADVANCE-IT grants are multimillion dollar, 5 year, cooperative agreements aimed at creating, sustaining, and studying ways to broaden the participation of women faculty in STEM. Social psychological science has much to offer in methodological and theoretical tools to design, measure, test, analyze, and interpret the impact of cultural transformation on the recruitment and retention of women faculty, as well as the benefits of enhancing faculty diversity. This is why this summer I organized a symposium on Using Social Psychological Science to ADVANCE the Participation of Women STEM Faculty at the 2014 meeting of the Association of Psychological Science. I wanted to inspire others to get involved, not just as consultants, but also as PIs and Co-PIs who can break new theoretical and applied ground within social psychology to study – and help solve – this incredibly important and persistent problem.