Nancy Manley The latest installment in the women’s series leading a STEM-related unit at ASU
Growing up in Yugoslavia, Tijana Rajh knew it didn’t matter if she was a scientist.
It was like, “Okay, let me play with the ball.” But there was this glass ceiling,” said Rajh, dean of the molecular sciences department at Arizona State University.
Rajh’s experience is not unique. According to UNESCO data, women make up less than 30% of the world’s scientific researchers, and the Association of University Professionals reports that women are the most successful in their STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). I found myself in a lower management position. ).
Donatella Danieli
“In many ways, it’s still an old man’s club,” said Donatella Danielli, director of ASU’s Department of Mathematics and Statistical Sciences.
ASU is changing that dynamic.
In the last 18 months, ASU has hired four women as heads of STEM-related areas. Rajh, Danielli, Patricia Rankin (Chair of the Physics Department), and most recently Life She is Nancy Manley (pictured above) as Director of Science. .
It is important to note that ASU did not intentionally seek female candidates for these positions. All four women competed with men in the selection process and were hired, said Patrick Kenny, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
“The first thing I would like to emphasize is that ASU has acquired the best possible talent,” said Rankin. “I don’t think I was hired because I’m a woman.”
That said, the four women recognize the importance of being where they are. Although they come from different backgrounds, they said they experienced some form of sexism during their formative years as scientists, sometimes directly and sometimes indirectly. Their voices and ideas were not appreciated.
“No one in the room is listening to you or you say something and a male colleague says the same thing and he will be recognized and credited for it. “It happens all the time,” said Manley. So you have to fight it all the time.
“It is very important to me that women have taken on these positions in fields that are thought to be predominantly male.”
Now that four women are in charge of their respective departments, they can fight that age-old prejudice. Equally important is the trickle-down effect that recruiters can create.
Tijana Raj
For example, since Raj was hired, the number of tenure-track female faculty members in the Graduate School of Molecular Sciences has increased from 12 to 16, and the number of non-tenure-track female faculty members has increased from 11 to 16.
“We are paying more attention than ever to develop a diverse faculty,” Rajh said. “We’re fighting to show that they can do the job as well as the Big Guns[men].”
Female undergraduate students also benefit. If she had only men in her STEM leadership at ASU, she would question the university’s commitment to diversity and its chances of becoming a dean or dean.
“When you’re mentored by women and you see women taking on these roles, you think, ‘Okay, I can be this good in science and math,'” said Danieli. “Maybe they didn’t get that message 30 years before him.”
“I had female graduate and undergraduate students say that having female leadership was important to them,” added Manley. “So I know it makes a difference.”
Last January, Danielli organized a panel on Women in Mathematics Leadership at a conference of the American Mathematical Society. The aim is to build a support group among female mathematicians.
“We also want to encourage, or at least make people think about, the possibility of women reaching leadership positions,” Danieli said. It can give you perspective on the challenges you faced and why you decided to do it.”
These are all issues of big-picture social change. However, women’s leadership roles in traditionally male-dominated fields are sometimes seen as trivial.
Patricia Rankin
After becoming the head of the physics department and talking to a female student, Rankin said one of the items on her to-do list was making sure the women’s restrooms were stocked with sanitary napkins. rice field.
“It may not seem like a big deal, but the reality is that if you’re stuck in a department and you’re doing a three-hour lab, you’re actually doing something like that. It’s important to have somewhere close to you that you can go,” she said.
There is still work to be done. According to the American Institute of Physics, she will be just over 2,000 female students with a bachelor’s degree in 2020, and more than 9,000 male students will be hers. Rajh said 20-25% of her faculty members in the Faculty of Molecular Sciences are women, and more than 50% of undergraduates are women.
ASU is about to change these numbers. And, as the hiring of Rajh, Danielli, Rankin and Manley attests, it’s about to change in meaningful ways.
“When issues are discovered, there is a big, ongoing push to make a difference,” says Rajh. “I think this is the greatest feature of ASU.”
Above: Nancy Manley is the new Director of the Life Sciences Department. She started her duty on her August 1st. Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU News
