A Review and Study on Graduate Training and Academic Hiring of Chemists

Abstract

For the last thirty years there has been a consistent growth in the percentage of doctorates earned by women in chemistry. However, hiring by the top research universities has not paralleled this trend. Identification of the dissertation advisors of the tenured and tenure-track faculty members in 2001 at the top-50 chemistry departments as ranked by the National Research Council (NRC-50) shows that no advisor had more than two female students that later became faculty members at a NRC-50 department. Fifty-four professors, all of whom were male, were found to have trained three or more future faculty members and forty-six percent of these advisors (25/54) did not have one former female student holding a NRC-50 faculty position. Reasons for the low representation of women on research faculties are explored and recommendations are made for actions that would improve the graduate school environment and increase the number of female faculty members.