From a Woman's Point of View: Barriers and Facilitators to Success in Science and Engineering, 1993

This study was conducted to evaluate the impact of the National Science Foundation Visiting Professorships for Women (VPW) program designed to increase the participation of women in science and engineering fields. It examined female scientists' and engineers' perceptions of any problems facing them in pursuit of their careers, and asked about the types of support which facilitated their progress. Surveys were administered nationally to three groups of women scientists and engineers: women who had received a VPW award (awardees), women who had applied for a VPW award but were not selected (applicants), and women who had received NSF research grants individually (grantees). Those who received the awardee survey included all VPW awardees from 1982-1990 (N=233). The grantee survey was given to 340 randomly selected women from 2,768 who received NSF grants from 1982-1990, and the applicant survey went to 340 randomly selected women from 604 who applied to the VPW program between 1982-1990. The overall response rate for all three groups was 79% (81% for awardees, 73% for applicants, and 82% for grantees). Demographically, those surveyed reflected the general population of female scientists and engineers in that the group was mostly white; three-quarters were married, and over half had no children under the age of 18. The average age of the sample was 44, but included women in their 20s, 30s, and 40s and older. Questions for the surveys were developed from information generated by four focus groups with 27 women from the three groups sampled. Each survey included questions about professional status, life circumstances, productivity, job satisfaction, the VPW application process (for awardees and applicants), and the VPW experience (for awardees only). The surveys all consisted mainly of closed-ended questions, but did include some open-ended questions as well. The Murray Research Archive holds both numeric file data and open-ended responses (electronic text files). Follow-up of this sample may only be performed in collaboration with the principal investigator(s)