Work in Progress: The Challenges of Evaluating ADVANCE Initiative's Effectiveness in the Progress of Women Faculty in Engineering

The retention and promotion of a diverse engineering faculty body play a primary role in the advancement of the field. Failure to retain engineering faculty has significant economic implications for institutions. Additionally, the availability of role models and potential mentors for women and other minorities is paramount for the continuing diversification of the field. Prior research has documented additional challenges faced by women faculty in engineering when compared to men; such evidence has resulted in significant attempts to attenuate such disparities among faculty at all ranks. Initiatives such as those requested by the NSF - Organizational Change for Gender Equity in STEM Academic Professions (ADVANCE) have the substantive goal to increase the number of women in engineering and other STEM areas and improve the quality of their experiences through the support of systemic change. However, few is known about how the cumulative positive change enacted by such initiatives manifest in the diversification of the field. Focused on the larger goal of creating models to capture the effectiveness of ADVANCE initiatives, this work in progress presents a literature review of the different factors that have been documented to negatively affect the progress of women faculty in engineering and other STEM areas. This is presented with an iterative identification of elements through different stages of the academic career, layered with variables that are measurable, and potential approaches for future modeling given existing research and the characteristics of the ADVANCE program. The challenges of modeling such a complex system are discussed, together with potential alternatives as a first modeling approach using existing data from different sources.