Minding the Gap: Recruiting, Retaining and Advancing Women in Science at NASA
First Advisory Panel Meeting--Friday, September 14, 2007
The "Minding the Gap" project addresses two major goals of NASA's Education Mission as outlined in the Education Strategic Framework: To attract and retain students in scientific disciplines, and to strengthen the future workforce of NASA and America, especially those in underrepresented communities. The project is aimed at helping ensure the inclusion of a major sector of society which continues to be underrepresented in its scientific workforce--women. Over the last decade, NASA has made great strides in increasing the representation of women on its scientific workforce. However, a considerable gender gap remains. This project proposes to identify practical measures to accelerate progress in diminishing that gap. As such, the project marks the second phase of the Office of Higher Education project on Women in Science at NASA.
The Women in Science at NASA Project
PHASE I: Making of a Scientist: Images and Reality
The project began in Fall 2005 with a public lecture series entitled Making of a Scientist: Images and Reality featuring some of the most outstanding women in science and scientific leadership. For a video of the lectures, please click on the speakers' names: Dr. Kathie Olsen (NSF) ; Dr. Meg Urry (Yale) ; Dr. Laurie Leshin (GSFC), and Dr. Anne Kinney (GSFC) .
PHASE II: Minding the Gap
The "Minding the Gap" study will begin this fall with an on-site meeting of the Advisory Panel on Friday, September 14, at Goddard Space Flight Center.
Minding the Gap Objectives
For details on objectives, plan of study and preliminary data please read the Minding the Gap Proposal .
The goal of this project is to devise practical measures to increase recruitment, retention and advancement of women in science at NASA; it will address both the education and the workforce portions of a career in science at NASA. The project team, formed by the Office of Higher Education in partnership with the Women’s Advisory Committee and the Equal Opportunity Office at Goddard, the NASA Center with the largest science population, is in optimum position to achieve both portions. To accomplish this objective, we propose to focus on:I. Assessing NASA’s contribution to the preparation of female scientists. We propose to use this analysis to identify concrete actions to modify aspects of existing programs and inform the development of new ones aimed at attracting, retaining and preparing more women for successful careers in science.
II. Assessing the environment for female scientists at NASA. We propose to formulate concrete steps to build on the positives, and to identify and eliminate barriers to gender parity in NASA’s scientific workforce and leadership.
Scope of the Study
• The focus will be exclusively on scienctists in the Sciences and Exploration Directorate at Goddard Space Flight Center.
As the Center with the largest concentration of NASA scientists, Goddard provides a large enough sample space for a representative and statistically significant study.
The study will focus on civil servants and include contractors and university affiliates to the extent possible.
• The problem of under-represented minorities is important and deserves a dedicated examination.
While we focus the present study on women in science,
we will consider applications of what we learn to minorities.
Dr. Steve Beckwith, Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) Dr. Rachel Ivie, American Institute of Physics (AIP) Dr. Shirley Malcom, American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS) Dr. Kathie Olsen , National Science Foundation (NSF) Dr. Virginia Valian, Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY) Dr. Maria Zuber, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Advisory Panel Meeting Agenda:The first Advisory Panel meeting will be held on Friday, September 14 in Building 26, Room 212 at Goddard Space Flight Center. Please click here to view the list of briefings and meetings with management and scientific workforce: Advisory Panel Meeting Agenda.
Project Staff:
Vigdor Teplitz, Chief Office of Higher Education, GSFC Mablelene Burrell, Office of Higher Education Pamela Millar, Laser Remote Sensing Laboratory Lynne Slater, Equal Opportunity Office Lubna Rana, Office of Higher Education
Information Package for the Advisory Panel
1. Advisory Panel Meeting Objectives and Agenda
Minding the Gap Objectives Meeting Agenda
2. Goddard Organizational Structure
NASA Goddard Organizational Chart Sciences and Exploration Directorate Organizational Charts
3. Travel Information
Address: Goddard Space Flight Center, 8800 Greenbelt Road, Greenbelt, MD 20771 Directions to Goddard Main Gate Goddard Internal Map Directions to Building 26
4. Relevant Reports
Minding the Gap Project Proposal 2002 APS GSFC Site Visit/ Gebbie Report AIP Report on Women in Physics and Astronomy 2005 Beyond Bias and Barriers, NAS Report 2006
5. Intern and Workforce Surveys
Summer 2007 Intern Survey--Beginning of Term Intern Survey--Midterm Intern Survey --End Term Draft Workforce Survey
6. References on Gender and Science
"Raise Your Hand If You Are A Woman In Science," Virginia Valian. "Demographic Inertia and Women's Representation Among Faculty in Higher Education," Hargens and Long. Demographic Inertia Revisited," Marschke et al.
Link to GSFC Women's Advisory Committee (WAC) < a href = "http://wac.gsfc.nasa.gov"> WAC.
6. Links to Relelvant Bios
GSFC’s Sciences and Exploration (SED) Staff Bios:
a. Dr. Laurie Leshin, Director of Sciences and Exploration b. Sciences and Exploration Staff: Code 600 c. Earth Science Staff: Code 610 d. Astrophysics Science Division Staff: Code 660 e. Heliophysics Science Division Staff: Code 670 f. Solar System Exploration Staff: Code 690
Webmaster: Lubna Rana