In “Women Don’t Ask,” authors Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever reveal a not-so-shocking truth: men and women hear the word “no” differently.
According to the writers’ research, for men, “no” means, “No, not now.” For women, “no” means, “No, not ever.”
It’s gender differences like these Prof. Holly Falk-Krzesinski is trying to bridge in a new joint initiative between Northwestern and the University of Chicago.
Last week, the two schools launched the Chicago Collaboration for Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, a three-year push for greater presence and leadership among female faculty in those academic areas, frequently referred to as STEM fields.
Falk-Krzesinski, a research assistant professor at NU’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute, sits on the collaboration’s coordinating committee with three NU educators and three UChicago educators.
She pointed to the “no” theory as prime evidence female educators could benefit from a program that equips them with the tools necessary for professional advancement.
Those skills – most notably networking and negotiation – will hopefully lead to female faculty members who are more prolific in scholarly publication, more likely to pursue leadership roles and more ambitious in securing tenure, Falk-Krzesinski said.
“We really want to see them thrive,” she added.
In an NU news release announcing the collaboration Wednesday, UChicago Provost Thomas Rosenbaum said the joint effort proves both institutions have dedicated themselves “to making significant progress” on the issue.
In 2010, no STEM field at UChicago was made up of more than 29 percent tenure-track women, according to the news release.
For the same period at Northwestern, no STEM field was populated by more than 36 percent tenure-track women.
“We have an institutional issue, an institutional problem,” Falk-Krzesinski said. “This is an institutional initiative to help address an institutional problem.”
The collaboration includes two one-year programs that aim to nudge these statistics in an upward direction. One of them, Navigating the Professoriate, is for tenure-eligible faculty members, and the other, Beyond Tenure, is for tenured professors and associate professors. Northwestern held Navigating the Professoriate in 2007 and 2009, but the collaboration marks the first time it is being opened to faculty from both universities.
Journalism Prof. Michele Weldon called the seminars “incredibly helpful” even though she does not teach in a STEM field. Weldon, a member of both the Journalism & Women Symposium and Association for Women Journalists, has attended several sessions of Navigating the Professoriate.
She commended the collaboration’s emphasis on STEM educators but described its mission as broader than just the teaching profession.
“Northwestern is moving in that direction, and it’s not a problem specifically there,” Weldon said of female recruitment. “It’s cultural, it’s global and it’s not specific to academia.”
Weinberg junior Katie Gresham said although she is not familiar with the collaboration, her physics professors have been almost entirely male and she recognizes the need for greater gender parity.
“I guess I would like to see more girls in the department, as a girl myself,” the physics and philosophy double major said. “I think girls who are students want to see other girls who have succeeded in their field.”
