Development, Leadership, Visibility Initiative

Leadership Development/Mentoring for Senior Women

Although not listed in the original grant application, WISELI committed to investigating the leadership and professional development of the senior women faculty in the biological and physical sciences. This effort has moved forward in three phases:

1. "Discovery Interviews"

WISELI resolved to talk with EVERY senior woman (female full professor in the biological and physical sciences divisions) in 2002/03. Multiple invitations were issued and from Fall 2002 through Spring 2003, initiative leaders Patti Brennan, Molly Carnes, Bernice Durand, and Jo Handelsman met with approximately half of the 82 senior women, using a structured interview agenda [] in a confidential setting. Notes were taken at each meeting, and compiled into a confidential report for the initiative leaders. Some concrete outcomes from these meetings included:

• Improved understanding of careers of senior women, and the changes needed to support their continued success
• Creation of new relationships among senior women in the sciences and engineering (including new collaborations that might not otherwise have happened)
• New questions added to Study of Faculty Worklife survey instrument
• Investigation of women's inclusion in important awards and honors
• Creation of email network for senior women
• Offering professional development opportunities of interest to senior women
• WISELI seminar led by Patti Brennan to bring findings back to senior women, provide closure on the meetings process
• Scholarly paper about the process of conducting these meetings to be published in Journal of Technology Transfer

2. Awards and Honors

Through our meetings with senior women as well as other interactions, we noted a reluctance of senior women to nominate themselves for major awards and honors, or even to see such awards as appropriate for themselves. We also noted the sometimes dismal gender distributions of important campus awards. Thus, WISELI resolved to inform more women faculty of the importance of preparing themselves for nomination for these important career milestones.

Brochure: Advancing Your Career through Awards and Recognitions: A Guide for Women Faculty in the Sciences & Engineering
This product is available for purchase in the WISELI Online Bookstore.

3. Study of Entrepreneurship (Directed by Patti Brennan)

Motivation: WISELI's investigation into the experience of senior women professors on the Madison campus revealed a group of individuals who, by and large, drew satisfaction and recognition for their research activities. Creating companies and acquiring patent rights for the products of research would be a likely outcome for successful researchers in the physical and biological sciences. Yet, very few of the women interviewed had availed themselves of the opportunity to commercialize the products of their research.

Background: Since 1990, faculty and staff from the UW-Madison have created over 250 private businesses, yet fewer than 10% of these were created by women faculty. With the University of Wisconsin-Madison's adoption of the implicit goal to maximize the economic value of faculty intellect, it would seem prudent to increase the number of senior women who commercialize the products of their research. Furthermore, increasing in this way would increase the number of women who are eligible for the added compensation that comes from commercial ventures, and also make these women better able to compete for grants and projects that require industry participants.

Question: How can we increase the number of women involved in commercial technology transfer?

 

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