Recruiting and Retaining Women in STEM Fields

University of Arkansas / University Relations

Shauna Morimoto

This month's Short Talks From the Hill, a research podcast of the University of Arkansas, features Shauna Morimoto, associate professor and chair of the Department of Sociology and Criminology, and Anne O'Leary-Kelly, professor of management and senior associate dean in the Walton College of Business.

Morimoto and O'Leary-Kelly discuss gender equity and recruiting and retaining women in STEM fields.

Last year, the U of A received a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to better recruit and retain women faculty, particularly those working in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math — collectively known as STEM.

Morimoto is principal investigator of the NSF grant, which has funded a project called UA ENGAGE — Empowering Networked Groups for Arkansas Gender Equity. UA ENGAGE's overarching goal is to transform the institution by adopting policies and practices that support underrepresented groups and mitigate organizational barriers to their success.

"Women in STEM tend to have the lowest representation of faculty in academic fields, so you will see women underrepresented in areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, as graduate students, but really - primarily what we're looking at - as assistant professors and all the way up to ranks of distinguished professors and in academic leadership," Morimoto says in the podcast. "One of the things that we really want to address is this inequity in the process, but also the ways that the institution constrains and enables the opportunities for women at the university."

To listen to Morimoto and O'Leary-Kelly discuss this project, click on the link above or go to Arkansas Research, the home of research news at the University of Arkansas, or visit the "On Air" and "Programs" link at KUAF.com.

Short Talks From the Hill highlights research and scholarly work at the U of A. Each segment features a university researcher discussing his or her work. Previous podcasts can be found under the 'Short Talks From the Hill' link at arkansasresearch.uark.edu, the home of science and research news at the University of Arkansas.

Thank you for listening!