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UM seeks greater role for women in

faculty
By Jamison Cocklin, Special to the BDN
Print | E-mail | Facebook | Tweet
Posted Feb. 11, 2011, at 8:28 p.m.

ORONO, Maine — The University of Maine recently received

a $3.3 million grant from the National Science Foundation
that it hopes will drastically change the cultural dynamic
between male and female faculty members on campus.

The initiative is aimed at using a research-based approach to

address the policies, practices and attitudes that limit
opportunities for women faculty members in certain ADVERTISEMENT | Grow your business
academic disciplines such as engineering, mathematics and
the sciences.

The move will be spearheaded by UMaine’s Rising Tide effort,

which is a group of faculty members at the school dedicated
Kate Collins | BDN
to the advancement of women in academia. The effort will
Professor Virginia Valian of Hunter
include events and strategic measures such as leadership
College addresses the crowd
development and equity training to achieve its goals. gathered for her lecture "Why So
The first of those events was held Friday at UMaine’s Minsky Slow? The Advancement of
Women" on Friday in Minsky Hall
Recital Hall. Virginia Valian, a guest speaker from Hunter
at the University of Maine in
College in Manhattan, gave a lecture titled “Why So Slow? Orono. Valian's lecture is the first
The Advancement Of Women.” public event presented by the
UMaine Advance Rising Tide
Before a crowd of more than 50 people, Valian, who teaches
Center, a National Science
language development, explained why women are often Foundation-funded project that
“underrated” and “disadvantaged” at the workplace and in uses a research approach to
society. developing opportunities for
women faculty members in the
“Data shows that women don’t advance at the same rate as science, technology, engineering,
men,” she said. “They work fewer hours and have less math and social-behavioral
specialties in the workplace.” sciences. Buy Photo

Valian attributed the disparities to fewer women graduating

from college than men and not enough child care facilities in the workplace, among other things.
But she said the greatest detriment to women trying to climb the social ladder is the way society
identifies men and women.

Valian called these methods of identification “gender schema,” which she likened to stereotypes.
“Men are perceived to be task-oriented, strong and instrumental, while women are perceived to
be nurturing, communal and expressive of their emotions,” she said.

These gender traits, Valian said, are not going away anytime soon, and almost everyone is guilty
of “understanding their worlds” with these traits, even if the person is unaware of it — something
the guest speaker said she was guilty of herself from time to time.
In effect, the traits often have led to unfavorable evaluations of women in numerous studies and
in the workplace.

Valian pointed to a study in which undergraduate students were asked to identify the leader in a
group of five people seated at a table. In the first picture, a man was seated at the head of the
table, and in the second picture, a woman was seated at the head of the table. Students identified
the man in the first picture as the leader 100 percent of the time, while they chose the woman in
the second picture to be the leader only 50 percent of the time, selecting a man seated adjacent to
the woman the other 50 percent of the time.
“I’m not making mountains out of molehills,” Valian said. “In life, small gains turn to big gains —
and if you don’t have access to small gains, you’re never going to get ahead.”

Valian added that, through incremental changes such as the effort being undertaken at UMaine,
women will attain a greater role in society, but she said their disadvantage in the workplace is
still a persistent problem worth discussing and improving upon.
UMaine Senior Vice President and Provost Susan Hunter was also in attendance Friday, as she is
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a member and principal investigator of the Rising Tide effort.
A differen
“The school has a proud history of supporting female faculty members,” she said. “We hope this
grant money and events like these will help retain and attract women to our campus.”

2 of 3 Related articles: 2/12/11 8:16 AM

UM seeks greater role for women in faculty — Maine News —... http://new.bangordailynews.com/2011/02/11/news/bangor/um-s...

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