Beyond Binders Full of Women: NSF ADVANCE and Initiatives for Institutional Transformation

Abstract

To address issues of gender inequity in STEM fields and academia more broadly, in 2001, the National Science Foundation (NSF) began the ADVANCE Institutional Transformation (IT) program. This research draws on concepts of gendered organizations and findings of universities as special cases of gendered bureaucracy to analyze initiatives developed by ADVANCE institutions for the purpose of creating a more equitable academy. Through an empirical analysis of the initiatives at four cohorts of ADVANCE schools, we examine ADVANCE as an equity program that seeks organizational and cultural change (i.e., institutional transformation), but conceptualizes equity in terms of the aggregate number of women in STEM fields (i.e., representation). We conclude by discussing the unevenness of institutional change that requires addressing gendering processes at both surface and “deep” levels, the importance of transparency and accountability at all incongruous levels of academic bureaucracy, and how feminist goals may be constrained by institutional contexts.