The Connect STEM Mentoring Program aims to provide professional and career connections to women in STEM. As a product of an ADVANCE grant funded by the National Science Foundation, this program strives to promote advancement for women in STEM. As a male-dominated field, women in STEM commonly face barriers to advancement opportunities which can…

Athena Swan was established in 2005 with the goal of advancing the careers of women in STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine) subjects in higher education. Since then, it has expanded its remit in various ways and has generated some controversy. This paper explains how Athena Swan operates as a policy-scoring scheme,…

The importance of reducing the gender gap in engineering programs by recruiting and retaining female students is well recognized. Although women hold roughly half of all jobs in the United States, only 24% of STEM jobs are occupied by women. The problem is even more pronounced for engineering, where women held about 12% of jobs as of 2013 (Corbett…

SPIRIT is a three year project designed to increase high school students' interests in and their desire to pursue IT careers. This paper examines the results of the project during its second year of implementation. All student participants, and in particular female students, experienced a positive change in perception of gender stereotypes in IT…

In this Exemplars case, the fifth and final under the direction of the current coeditors, the authors present a reflective account of an ongoing, complex, multiyear, multinational monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system conducted for African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD), an international development program. The…

This paper explores both how male and female high school pupils (15-16 years old) perceive the engineering profession and their willingness to pursue a career in this area. A study was performed around a one-day outreach activity, Girls' Day, organized for the first time in Spain. During Girls' Day, students were exposed to specific activities…

Despite the national focus on improving transition services and post-school outcomes, many young women with disabilities still face significant barriers in obtaining meaningful employment and pursuing postsecondary education or training. Although recent reports indicate that the gender gap in employment rates may be diminishing, in this same…

Multiple initiatives have been launched to try to widen the pipeline for women to enter engineering careers, including reviews of gender differences in enrollment in technology and pre-engineering courses from middle school through doctoral degrees. National agencies have also studied some of the social and cultural forces at play with regard to…

Program goals of Project CHOICE were evaluated in terms of their ability to develop procedures to identify educational, family, and racial barriers to fulfillment of potential in sophomore girls, to design and use strategies for removing internalized and institutional barriers, and to be validated as effective intervention measures. Results of the…

A project was conducted to design and field-test a prevocational program of recruitment, instruction, advising, counseling, and placement for women considering careers in science and technology fields. Additional objectives were to directly assist women in coping with constraints inhibiting them from entering such fields and to compile the program…

Mentoring is often considered a gift of time and resources that a mentor gives to a mentee. However, research suggests that mentoring has benefits specifically for the mentor. This study analyzes written reflections of twenty-five mentors who took part in a National Science Foundation-funded program that encouraged middle-school girls to engage in…

A project designed and demonstrated a career guidance model for academically gifted female students to overcome problems associated with non-traditional career choices and sex-role stereotyping. Academically gifted females were identified in grades 6 and 10-12. Parent involvement was actively solicited to facilitate non-traditional career…

Evaluates whether women participating in a career group designed to increase career-related self-efficacy would make gains on career decision-making self-efficacy and vocational exploration and commitment compared with women in a control group. Results indicate that women in the treatment group improved on career decision-making self-efficacy and…

The project was developed to improve career guidance services for adults, particularly ethnic minorities and women. General objectives for the project were (1) to identify viable career guidance, counseling, placement, and followup approaches being used with adult populations, (2) to implement and field test two of these approaches and design…

Overview of five recently published evaluations of career development interventions designed specifically for women suggests that these programs need to be more systematically evaluated and reported. Given the limited extent to which existing substantive and methodological knowledge appear to be informing practice, two major strategies are…