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Seeking Solutions: Maximizing American Talent by Advancing Women of Color in Academia: Summary of a Conference (2013)

Chapter: Appendix E-17: American Sociological Association Written Testimony

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix E-17: American Sociological Association Written Testimony." National Research Council. 2013. Seeking Solutions: Maximizing American Talent by Advancing Women of Color in Academia: Summary of a Conference. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18556.
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Appendix E-17


American Sociological Association Written Testimony

Introduction

Since the 1960s, the American Sociological Association (ASA) has been focused on improving the success of women and underrepresented racial/ethnic minorities in the scientific workforce. Founded in 1905, ASA now has over 14,000 members. Its nearly 50 special interest sections have more than 21,000 memberships, and it publishes 9 scholarly journals and a research-based magazine. As the national organization for sociologists, the ASA, through its Executive Office in Washington, DC, provides a wide range of services to its members, and promotes the vitality, visibility, and diversity of the discipline.

Support Structure

ASA has been successful at improving the participation, visibility, and status of underrepresented minorities and women in the discipline by focused efforts to create an organizational support structure that includes appointed status committees, dedicated personnel, and innovative programs. In 1970-71, ASA’s elected Council appointed a permanent Committee on the Status of Women in Sociology (CSWS) and a Committee of the Status of Racial and Ethnic Minorities in Sociology (CSREMS). The mandate of both was “to increase the degree of participation by minority and women sociologists in the opportunity structure of the discipline.” These Status Committees remain vigorous today and report regularly to the ASA leadership. Most recently, the CSREMS prepared a study of differences between white students and students of color on the importance of peer social climate, faculty mentoring, and professional socialization. The CSWS is currently studying time in rank, comparing faculty members by race, ethnicity, and gender.

Women of Color in Sociology

Sociology has the highest representation of minority women in sciences in American higher education at all degree levels. Minority women are awarded slightly more than a quarter of bachelor’s degrees in sociology, about 17 percent of master’s degrees, and 10 percent of doctoral degrees. The difference between the percentages of women in sociology and physics is more than seven-fold at all degree levels (see Table E-17-1).

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E-17: American Sociological Association Written Testimony." National Research Council. 2013. Seeking Solutions: Maximizing American Talent by Advancing Women of Color in Academia: Summary of a Conference. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18556.
×

Table E-17-1 Percent minority women among US college graduates by degree and discipline, 2009.

Baccalaureate Master's Doctorate
Sociology 25.8 17.2 10.1
Biological sciences 19.6 12.1 8.8
Chemistry 16.8 9.6 5.7
Political science and public administration 15.8 16.8 8.7
Economics 9.9 5.1 2.9
Math and computer science 7.4 4.8 2.8
Engineering 5.6 4.8 2.8
Physics 3.6 2.2 1.3

Source: IPEDS Completion Survey by Race, 2009. Available at https://webcaspar.nsf.gov.

An important factor in the strong representation of women of color in sociology is the discipline’s core fields of research. They include: social inequalities of race, ethnicity, class, and gender; medical sociology; sociology of culture; sociology of education; occupations, organizations, and work; and sociology of the family. Sociologists conduct scientific research in these areas Women of color are more likely than men of color to participate in the ASA and in these special interest sections.

ASA has supported programs at both the undergraduate and graduate levels to increase the representation and eventual career success of men and women of color in the discipline. Two of the most successful programs are known by their acronyms, MOST and MFP.

At the Undergraduate Level

During 1993-1994, ASA began an innovative effort to foster diversity and excellence in higher education by working with individual undergraduate sociology departments to bring about systemic changes that impact the participation and place of minority students in the discipline. The Minority Opportunities through School Transformation program (MOST) helped departments bring about organizational change by specific changes in the curriculum, mentoring, research, training, climate, and pipeline. Eleven sociology departments participated in this 8-year program, ranging from liberal arts colleges to large research-extensive universities.

MOST emphasized increased rigor in scientific methods, direct research experiences, and the integration of content on race, ethnicity, class, and gender in all courses and aspects of the curriculum; the responsibility of all faculty members in a department to mentor all students; a departmental climate sensitive to diversity; and increasing the number of undergraduates of color going to graduate school. The outcomes of this program were overwhelmingly positive, as the course offerings including diversity content doubled and the percent of minority students who graduated increased from 18 to 33 percent. ASA published a monograph of “best practices” and principles so that other departments, regardless of discipline, could pursue similar models.32

__________________

32 Levine, Felice J., Havidan Rodriguez, Carla B. Howery, and Alfonso R. Latoni-Rodriguez. 2002. Promoting Diversity and Excellence in Higher Education Through Department Change. Washington, DC: American Sociological Association.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E-17: American Sociological Association Written Testimony." National Research Council. 2013. Seeking Solutions: Maximizing American Talent by Advancing Women of Color in Academia: Summary of a Conference. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18556.
×

At the Graduate Level

ASA’s now 38-year-old pre-doctoral Minority Fellowship Program (MFP) provides annual stipends, mentoring, training support, access to professional networks, and continuous guidance and evaluation to individual scholars in close cooperation with host university doctoral programs. Through 2010, MFP was supported by a series of large T-32 training grants from the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH). After 2010, a discipline-wide pledge campaign was instituted to ensure ongoing support of the MFP from sociological organizations and individuals. Sociologists for Women in Society, for example, donated $100,000 plus ongoing annual support. Through MFP, ASA has supported the training and career development of nearly 300 minority scholars earning the Ph.D. in sociology. MFP Fellows are nationally recruited and competitively selected by an appointed advisory panel each spring, and their progress is monitored both during and after the PhD.

Findings from Recent National Science Foundation-Funded Research about MFP

ASA received an NSF research grant to compare the past 13 years of MFP PhDs to a random sample of sociology PhD recipients from the same period. We hypothesized that MFP leveled the playing field and that Fellows would be equally successful at securing the “ideal” academic career as measured by employment at research-extensive schools, number of peer reviewed journal articles (including in “top” journals), grants awarded, on-time tenure receipt, and disciplinary recognition. Table E-18-2 shows that MFP scholars are equally likely as the random sample of largely white students to receive tenure, are more likely to receive grants, and are more likely to become leaders in the discipline. They are, however, less likely to publish. However, if their dissertation advisor was a minority faculty member, they were more likely to publish in graduate school, suggesting the importance of increasing the number of minority senior scholars in the discipline.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E-17: American Sociological Association Written Testimony." National Research Council. 2013. Seeking Solutions: Maximizing American Talent by Advancing Women of Color in Academia: Summary of a Conference. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18556.
×

Table E-17-2 Comparative career achievements for tenure track/tenured academic scholars in 2010.

Variables

Randomly selected PhDs

MFP Fellows

Career Achievements:

 

 

Tenured

45.9 %

43.1 %

Employed at a Research I university

26.5 %

21.5 %

Received at least 1 NSF and/or NIH research grant

9.2 %

15.4 %

Elect as an ASA section officer (at least once)

7.1 %

13.8 %

Graduate School Scholarly Productivity:

 

 

Published at least one article

62.2 %

50.8 %

By co-authorshipa

Solo-authored

34.7 %

18.5 %

With someone other than advisor

30.6 %

30.8 %

With dissertation advisor

14.3 %

15.4 %

By kind of advisor:

 

 

Minorityb

12.5 % (8)

21.4 % (14)

White femaleb

12.6 % (32)

10.5 % (19)

White maleb

17.3 % (52)

11.5 % (26)

Post-PhD Scholarly Productivity through 2010:

 

 

Total number of articles and books publishedc

4.5 (6.7)

3.6 (4.9)

Total number of articles published in top three sociological journalsc

0.2(0.74)

0.1 (0.21)

Notes: a. Categories are not mutually exclusive; b. In parentheses is the total number of Ph.D. graduates who had this kind of advisor. Advisors with missing race/ethnicity are not reported; and c. Shows group means and standard deviations in parentheses.

Women in MFP

Women MFP alumnae have become leaders in the discipline in terms of scholarship and service. Patricia Hill Collins is a Distinguished University Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland. She became the 100th President of the ASA in 2009, both the first African American woman and former MFP alumna to do so. Linda M. Burton is the James B. Duke Professor of Sociology at Duke University. She recently completed her term on the National Research Council's Board on Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences. And MFP alumna Patricia E. White is Program Director for the Sociology Program, Division of Social and Economic Sciences, at the National Science Foundation. She has also coordinated the Social and Political Sciences Cluster, was a senior analyst in the Division of Science Resources Statistics, and Program Officer in the Methodology, Measurement and Statistics program, all at NSF.

Despite the distinguished records of many MFP alumna of color, our recent study of MFP Fellows finds that, in general, alumna are not doing as well as alumni in terms of achieving that “ideal” academic career. Table E-18-3 shows that MFP women are half as likely as MFP men to be employed at research-extensive universities, half as likely to receive NSF and/or NIH grants, and about two-thirds as likely to become ASA section leaders; they also have about half the peer-reviewed journal publications since receiving their PhDs. More are full professors (4.8 percent

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E-17: American Sociological Association Written Testimony." National Research Council. 2013. Seeking Solutions: Maximizing American Talent by Advancing Women of Color in Academia: Summary of a Conference. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18556.
×

compared to 0 percent), and they are equally likely to have a publication in one of the discipline’s top three journals (4.8 percent versus 4.6 percent).

This gap between women and men is not true for the comparison groups of non-MFP minority scholars and white scholars. The data give one hint as to why there is this difference among MFPs. Women in MFP may be less well socialized into the academic norms of the discipline than MFP men. Publications in graduate school usually signal a career of scholarly publishing that is forthcoming. Over three-quarters (77.3 percent) of MFP men had a least one publication prior to receiving their PhDs, compared to 38.1 percent of the women. MFP men appear to be better prepared by their dissertation advisors for scholarly careers; three times the percent of advisors co-authored at least one article in a peer-reviewed journal with men compared to the dissertation advisors of women (27.3 percent compared to 9.5 percent). This gender gap among MFP alumnae/i is cause for concern and still requires further study and improvement.

Table E-17-3 Career outcomes of MFPs employed in academia by gender, 2010.

MFP Fellows

Men

Women

Scholarly Productivity and Employment for 1997-2009 PhD Graduates:

Employed at a Research I University

31.8 %

16.7 %

At least One Publication with Mentor prior to Graduation

27.3 %

9.5 %

Mean Total Number of Publications since PhD Graduationa

5.5 (1.5)

2.7 (0.5)

At least One Article Published in Top Sociology Journals

4.6 %

4.8 %

Received NSF and/or NIH Grants

22.7 %

11.9 %

ASA Section Officer Service

18.2 %

11.9 %

Rank of 1997-2002 PhD Graduates:

Full Professor

0.0 %

9.5 %

Associate Professor

72.7 %

66.7 %

Assistant Professor

27.3 %

23.8 %

Notes: a. Standard errors are in parentheses.

ASA will continue its research with particular attention to the issues women of color face in MFP and in the discipline, including what impacts co-authorship networks during graduate school, potential marginality in departments, and the effects of more MFP programmatic emphasis on early post-PhD mentoring. ASA has formed a collaborative research network of former MFP scholars to supplement the quantitative findings, with in-depth micro-level data on motivations, perceptions, and experiences of individual minority graduate students and early career faculty to explore gender differences in the roles of choice and social exclusion in minorities’ pursuit of “ideal” versus other career trajectories. As such, ASA is moving to continue MFP support into Fellows’ early post-PhD careers to help enhance grant and publication productivity. And organizationally, ASA is working to increase the collaboration between CSREMS and CSWS—ASA’s status committees focused on minority and women sociologists—so that they can jointly examine both professional socialization and structural issues of inclusion/exclusion experienced by women sociologists of color. Following the success of ASA’s MOST report, ASA is planning a monograph “best practices” and demonstrated principles for increasing the success of minority PhD candidates and early career faculty, especially women, so that departments can continue to pursue successful program models.

 

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E-17: American Sociological Association Written Testimony." National Research Council. 2013. Seeking Solutions: Maximizing American Talent by Advancing Women of Color in Academia: Summary of a Conference. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18556.
×
Page 224
Suggested Citation:"Appendix E-17: American Sociological Association Written Testimony." National Research Council. 2013. Seeking Solutions: Maximizing American Talent by Advancing Women of Color in Academia: Summary of a Conference. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18556.
×
Page 225
Suggested Citation:"Appendix E-17: American Sociological Association Written Testimony." National Research Council. 2013. Seeking Solutions: Maximizing American Talent by Advancing Women of Color in Academia: Summary of a Conference. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18556.
×
Page 226
Suggested Citation:"Appendix E-17: American Sociological Association Written Testimony." National Research Council. 2013. Seeking Solutions: Maximizing American Talent by Advancing Women of Color in Academia: Summary of a Conference. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18556.
×
Page 227
Suggested Citation:"Appendix E-17: American Sociological Association Written Testimony." National Research Council. 2013. Seeking Solutions: Maximizing American Talent by Advancing Women of Color in Academia: Summary of a Conference. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18556.
×
Page 228
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Seeking Solutions: Maximizing American Talent by Advancing Women of Color in Academia is the summary of a 2013 conference convened by the Committee on Women in Science, Engineering and Medicine of the National Research Council to discuss the current status of women of color in academia and explore the challenges and successful initiatives for creating the institutional changes required to increase representation of women of color at all levels of the academic workforce. While the number of women, including minority women, pursuing higher education in science, engineering and medicine has grown, the number of minority women faculty in all institutions of higher education has remained small and has grown less rapidly than the numbers of nonminority women or minority men.

Seeking Solutions reviews the existing research on education and academic career patterns for minority women in science, engineering, and medicine to enhance understanding of the barriers and challenges to the full participation of all minority women in STEM disciplines and academic careers. Additionally, this report identifies reliable and credible data source and data gaps, as well as key aspects of exemplary policies and programs that are effective in enhancing minority women's participation in faculty ranks. Success in academia is predicated on many factors and is not solely a function of talent. Seeking Solutions elucidates those other factors and highlights ways that institutions and the individuals working there can take action to create institutional cultures hospitable to people of any gender, race, and ethnicity.

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