Institutionalization, Sustainability, and Repeatability of ADVANCE for Institutional Transformation

Principal investigators sow the seeds for successful institutionalization and sustainability of their ADVANCE grants when they make the decision to submit the grant and plan the goals, objectives, and activities underpinning the particular aspects of institutional transformation that their university will pursue within a general framework to advance faculty women to senior and leadership positions. Receiving the National Science Foundation (NSF) funding in a very competitive, peer-reviewed program and the relatively large size of the NSF grants carry considerable prestige. It is the institutional investment in terms of both human and capital resources and commitment on the parts of administrators and faculty to establish, change, and implement policies and practices to support ADVANCE that leverages the NSF support and assures long-term impact of the initiative.     

Participation, Performance, and Advancement of Women in Academic Science and Engineering: What is at Issue and Why

Using multi-staged methods developed in this research for coding/analysis of interview data, this article portrays women’s reported experiences of participation, performance, and advancement in academic science and engineering in a major technological institution. The methods and findings have implications for understanding the complexity underlying women’s participation and performance, and for practices and policies to support advancement of women faculty, particularly those in research universities.     

Finding our way: early learning from the Compass Project,an Intensive Intervention Risk Management service for women

Abstract

Intensive Intervention Risk Management (IIRM) services are commissioned under the Offender Personality Disorder strategy to contribute to a psychologically informed pathway by supporting individuals ‘through the gate’. This paper reports some of the learning from the first IIRM service for women and outlines how those involved have sought to understand the challenges that were faced by this project in its early days. This paper argues that these challenges help to clarify the role of IIRM services for women and that the ambition for these services should be to facilitate coherent, holistic management. We suggest that IIRM services for women offenders are likely to be most effective if they are well integrated and responsive to the social context, underpinned by a partnership approach and have clear processes for service delivery. Finally, we argue that IIRM services for women should be characterised by a commitment to involvement at every level.     

Educational saliency and careers in criminal justice: The case of Louisiana

While there is little consensus as to the exact form and structure of an academic criminal justice program, the traditional model of higher education, with its emphasis on qualified and productive faculty, has gained popular acceptance in the past decade. Concurrently, graduates of criminal justice programs have often found that prospective employers do not value their degrees. This article explores the relationships between student evaluations of their educational experiences, the structural characteristics identified as essential to an educational program, and the mechanisms used by ex-students to reduce dissonance caused by employer rejection or a poor job market.In 1980 a total of 411 recent graduates of eight criminal justice programs in Louisiana responded to a questionnaire designed to measure their attitudes toward and evaluations of their educations. Several key structural variables frequently associated with quality higher education failed to predict student evaluations. Two exceptions were ration of senior faculty and ratio of ex-police as faculty, and the effects of these variables on student evaluations were inverse. Overall, the best predictor of the saliency of one's educational experiences was the student's evaluation of the current job market in criminal justice. This variable was followed, in descending order by sex, ratio of faculty with senior rank, years since graduation, type of degree granted, and ratio of ex-police as faculty.     

University mission and academic freedom: Are they irreconcilable?

Educational freedom, rightly understood, depends upon the freedom to shape - and (for individuals) to choose to study in or teach in - distinctive educational institutions. This implies an obligation upon faculty who have chosen to commit themselves to such an institution to teach in a way that engages positively with its educational project. Policies which provide scope and encouragement for schools and universities to represent distinctive and coherent viewpoints are an essential condition of educational freedom in a pluralistic society. These issues are discussed with reference to the ‘values project‘ of Free University in Amsterdam and to debates, in the Netherlands and the United States, over the distinctive character of schools. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Inclusive National Governance and Trafficked Women in Australia: Otherness and Local Demand

Trafficked women are used and consumed in different ways and by different users in Australia. They are used by the traffickers and by the consumer of the destination country. They are used as prosecutorial tools by the national criminal justice agents. They are used by the national politicians to pursue border control policy objectives and to be seen as abiding by international protocols. In all these uses, the identity of the trafficked woman is formed and shaped to fit the users’ need. However, these women’s otherness and abjection is constantly maintained and reinforced. They are used as a commodity. Meanwhile, the discussion on the demand side, and the consequent responsibility of the destination country, is virtually omitted. This paper will raise the question of how the socio-legal analysis and discourse would evolve if a literal interpretation of trafficking women as a commodity was taken into account, exploring an international trade approach. The social construction of trafficked women as a commodity has been identified and criticised by academic scholars, NGOs’ and UN’s rapporteurs. By pursuing this line of approach, the destination country is forced to take more responsibility for how the woman is demanded within its territory. As a consequence of this international trade approach, the State should deliver equality and non-discrimination. Rather than being a cynical application of a trade framework to trafficked women, this approach aims to highlight the paradox of such a situation in legal terms. It is highlighted that approaching trafficked women from this legal and jurisprudential way may offer more possibilities to expand their claims against the State. Currently, in Australia, when a trafficked woman is located by the State, she would attract limited and temporal rights, her being the ‘other’ as well as an abject entity remains, notwithstanding the fact the she was imported because there is a demand within the territory.     

Women in Science: Racial and Ethnic Differences and the Differences They Make

Often the term “women” is assumed to include women of color in the same way as the terms “African American” and “Hispanic” are assumed to include both women and men. Although women of color and non-Hispanic white women are under represented in the science labor force, the rates of and factors contributing to this under representation differ by race and ethnicity. Consequently, disaggregating data on women in science by race and ethnicity is crucial to capture these differences. Such distinctions are critical to developing effective policy, practice, and programs to increase the participation of women in science.     

Hope Springs Eternal: An Exploration of Hope at a Local Jail

Prevention and intervention research has indicated the malleability of hope in a variety of populations and the positive impact on treatment outcomes in general clinical settings and substance use treatment. However, despite its prospective role in improving well-being, research on hope is not often situated behind bars. Thus, the current project intended to explore the nature of theory-driven hope discussions for women involved in justice systems. The aim was to maintain and enhance hope, activate positivity, and thereby enhance the quality of life.

Four weekly focus group sessions were conducted with women detained at a local jail (n?=?23), with discussion prompts based on Snyder’s theory of hope (goal setting, agency thinking, and pathway thinking). Using interactional delivery methods, we emphasized hope among jailed women by: (1) facilitating the development and maintenance of hopeful thinking; (2) developing concrete goals towards rehabilitation and a positive life; (3) enhancing the capacity for developing enduring, cross-sectional strategies for goal attainment; and (4) facilitating self-analysis on their overall ability to produce workable plans required to reach the goals. Weekly journaling was also included to complement the process.

Results from the qualitative analysis suggest hope for these jailed women was constructed as belief in a better future and was also often embedded within a religious worldview. Further, jailed women’s perceptions of meeting goals were heavily dependent upon outside sources that would provide structure and discipline. Implications include providing strength-based reentry programs, offering mentorship, emphasizing goal-setting strategies, and reviewing visitation policies.     

Gender Patterns of Research and Licensing Activity of Science and Engineering Faculty

In this paper we extend our earlier work on science and engineering faculty disclosure and licensing activity to examine a characteristic of faculty ignored in our earlier work – the gender of faculty in our database of over 4500 faculty at 11 major universities. Not surprisingly, women comprise only 8.55% of the faculty in our sample. They are most represented in the biological sciences and the women in the sample are more likely to be younger faculty. The most striking result from highlighting women in the sample is that women are less likely to disclose inventions than men despite the fact that there are no significant differences in publication patterns. While disclosure activity varies by gender, we find that the disclosure activity of women and men converges over the period of our sample.JEL Classification: J16, L3, O3Financial support was provided by National Science Foundation (SES 0094573), the Alan and Mildred Peterson Foundation and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.     

Are women really difficult? Challenges and solutions in the care of women in secure services

Abstract

Concern about the approach to the care of women in secure hospitals led to radical Department of Health Guidance in 2002 and 2003. This paper explores the views and experience of senior clinicians and managers involved in delivering care through semi-structured interviews. The gendered nature of the therapeutic challenge and the complexity of the women in their care are both articulated as well as the extent to which respondents see themselves as having addressed clinical practice guidance. Service delivery is substantially informed by the ideas of relational security, attachment theory and the recovery model. Traditional concepts of security were considered unhelpful in the care of women. Reliance on respondents’ views as to the quality of care offered must remain limited in view of the continuing absence of corresponding clinical outcome data. However, their responses should inform amendments to current service organisation.     

Types of Violence against Women and Factors Influencing Intimate Partner Violence in Togo (West Africa)

Violence against women has been recognized as an important social and human rights issue that affects all cultures and societies. Although this issue has been more frequently studied in high-income countries, such as the United States, the scholarly research of violence against women in Africa, especially West Africa, has been scarce. Using a representative sample, this study examined violence against women in Togo, particularly the types of violence that Togolese women endure, and factors that affect a Togolese woman’s chance of being victimized by her intimate partner. The findings indicated that Togolese women experienced different forms of violence. Also, some covariates at the individual level significantly affected a woman’s risk of experiencing intimate partner violence. Several policy recommendations have been made.

Researchers’ Industry Experience and Productivity in University–Industry Research Centers: A “Scientific and Technical Human Capital” Explanation

We examine the impact of researchers’ previous industry experience on the research outputs and outcomes of university faculty affiliated with NSF and DOE research centers. Using a dataset combining curriculum vita and surveys, our results indicate significant differences between the researchers who have previous industry experience and those who do not. Using a simple model of research productivity, we found that academic researchers who had prior industry exposure produce fewer total career publications, but they support more students. Most important, and perhaps surprising, we could not establish any difference between the two groups’ publication activity when focusing on a five-year cross-section (years 1996–2000) rather than total career publications. We found statistical evidence that previous industry experience raised the annual publication productivity of junior faculty members and women researchers in our sample of research center personnel. We believe the unique blend of research center affiliation, academic post, and past industry experience gives an individual who embodies or possesses all three characteristics a diverse source of scientific and technical human capital and particular advantages over those who have no industry experience (though the “academic-only” set also has particular advantages in cumulative publishing productivity).     

Classification Typology and Assessment of Five Levels of Woman Battering

Family violence is a prevalent, dangerous, and often life-threatening social and public health problem. It is an indiscriminating crime that knows few boundaries, as recent annual estimates indicate that over 8.7 million women are battered by husbands, boyfriends, and other intimate partners [Roberts, 2002; Roberts & Roberts, 2005]. This article examines a new five-level classificatory schema or typology detailing the duration and severity of woman battering. Five hundred and one battered women completed in-depth interviews which formed the basis for a new classification typology ranging from short-term to chronic to homicidal levels. The current research on different types of battering relationships provides clinicians and forensic specialists with psychosocial indicators that can be utilized as a basis for early intervention and prevention of lethal consequences. The concept of the unknown prevalence of women abuse, or the “dark figure,” is also addressed in this article. Additionally, practical suggestions are made for implementing crisis intervention protocols.     

Industry/University interaction for simulation-based process improvement

This paper describes an effort by industry and university partners to centralize manufacturing decision making through the development of generic simulation tools. This ongoing, cooperative process improvement initiative between the Industrial and Systems Engineering faculty at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) and Chrysler’s Huntsville Electronics Division (HED) permits the involved faculty to broaden their experience and technical expertise in electronics fabrication, while the industry partner benefits from the transfer of technical knowledge and advanced analysis methodologies from the university. The focus of the project is the definition of generic electronic manufacturing models that can be easily defined and implemented through common user-oriented interfaces, allowing users who are not familiar with simulation and simulation languages to address the needs of their particular functional areas.     

Service Contact and Delivery of a Shelter Outreach Project

An experimental outreach program offered shelter-based support groups or phone counseling to battered women in the criminal and civil courts. The outreach project attempted to contact 1,895 eligible women drawn from the court dockets. Nearly 50% of these women could not be reached, another third refused services, and about a fifth of the women accepted either the shelter-based counseling or phone counseling. However, only 19% (n = 71) of those who accepted service (or less than 4% of the total eligible women) actually participated in the service. The women refused services primarily because they did not feel they needed them; they accepted service mainly to get help with their emotions. The women who participated in the shelter-based counseling tended to be of a higher social economic status than women who generally contacted the courts. The main problems for the women in phone counseling was recurring abuse from their partners and getting help for their children. The findings may suggest different types of battered women that warrant different strategies to reach them. The outreach efforts might be further developed, as well, to more actively recruit and engage women in general.     

How Do Female and Male Faculty Members Construct Job Satisfaction? The Roles of Perceived Institutional Leadership and Mentoring and their Mediating Processes

In this study we examine how a sample of 248 male and female professors at a Midwestern private research university construct their academic job satisfaction. Our findings indicate that both women and men perceive that their job satisfaction is influenced by the institutional leadership and mentoring they receive, but only as mediated by the two key academic processes of access to internal academic resources (including research-supportive workloads) and internal relational supports from a collegial and inclusive immediate work environment. Gender differences emerged in the strengths of the perceived paths leading to satisfaction: women’s job satisfaction derived more from their perceptions of the internal relational supports than the academic resources they received, whereas men’s job satisfaction resulted equally from their perceptions of internal academic resources and internal relational supports received. Implications for leadership and institutional practices are drawn from the findings.     

Students’ self‐assessment in law: Report of a pilot project

The pilot study reported here was a one‐off study about self‐assessment by students of a law assignment (a problem in the law of Tort). The project was conceived as a result of concern about too much assessment/marking and its effect on staff time (and research and other scholarly activities) and also as a result of discussions the author had with his faculty colleagues and other colleagues outside his institution. This report focuses on the following issues: definition and problems of self‐assessment, aims of the study, review of the literature, method of study, findings and discussion of the findings.     

An exploratory study of women prisoners’ attitudes towards their self-harm and the use of medical skin camouflage

Self-harm is a growing problem in UK prisons with women self-harming more than men. Self-harm can leave permanent scarring. Research on scarring suggests that living with scars can lead to psychological difficulties; however, there is little research on the specific effects of self-harm scars. Medical skin camouflage (MSC) can be used to cover numerous skin conditions. The use of MSC for women in prison with self-harm scars has not been examined previously. A focus group involving 10 women prisoners aimed to (1) explore feelings about self-harm scars, (2) examine effects that scars have on life in prison and (3) examine thoughts on using MSC in prison. This group formed part of a larger project designed to test the feasibility and acceptability of MSC for women who self-harm in prison. A topic guide was created with two service user researchers with experience of self-harm in prison. The results have been divided into three themes: (1) feelings about self-harm scars, (2) covering self-harm scars and (3) attitudes towards MSC. Our findings indicate that women in prison tend to feel embarrassed and self-conscious about their scars, and the presence of scars affects their relationships within prison. The women were enthusiastic about MSC, suggesting that it has the potential to affect women’s well-being and ability to engage with others.