The science of diversity

While the number of women in science is increasing in the United States, women continue to be significantly underrepresented in the upper ranks [National Science Foundation, 2004]. U.S. universities as well as the federal government are responding to this bottleneck by increasing their investments in diversity initiatives. Following the 1999 Massachusetts Institute of Technology report about bias against female faculty, the U.S. National Science Foundation launched the ADVANCE program to increase the participation of women in science. The goal of the program is to use behavioral and social science research to understand and change individual and organizational behavior.