Oft-neglected in recent years, the movement for women's professional development and mentorship has found a new spark in the efforts of two undergraduates.
Inspired by a series of events focusing on women's mentorship--three dinners earlier this year and a Duke Student Government luncheon with the Board of Trustees--junior Elizabeth Dixon is working to create a group focused on forging professional relationships between women at the University. She said she aims to set up a program where female undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty and staff can meet several times a month to discuss pertinent issues on campus. A closed meeting will take place Nov. 9 to explore possible courses of action.
"I was just motivated because the Women's Initiative is someone's objective look at Duke, and now it's our job to decide how we want to react," Dixon said. "There's a growing awareness overall about the type of community we'd like to have."
Starting points for discussion may include the difference in academic pressures for men and women, the on-campus dating scene and eating disorders.
Senior Devon MacWilliam, meanwhile, got things rolling back in early September by working with the Panhellenic Council, which she heads; the Graduate and Professional Women's Network; and the Duke University Union to organize the three mentorship dinners.
"Each conversation touched on the balance between work and family and work and personal life, that sort of triad," MacWilliam said. "It was something that undergraduate and graduate students all seemed very concerned about--'How do I become a successful woman in my field and also create a family and take care of myself?'"
Cultural anthropology Professor Diane Nelson, Dean of the Pratt School of Engineering Kristina Johnson and Board of Trustees member Kimberly Jenkins spoke to about 120 women over the three nights.
A number of graduate and professional students, MacWilliam said, would like to receive more mentorship themselves in addition to guiding undergraduates.
William Chafe, dean of the faculty of Arts and Sciences, noted that while Duke has done well in attracting distinguished female professors, there is still room for improvement.
"I think that we are committed to having women represented strongly among our distinguished professors," Chafe said. "We have had a good record of women being awarded competitive national grants both in the sciences and in things like the Guggenheim Fellowship and the National Endowment in the Humanities.... It's a selection process which involves nomination. I think there's certainly an effort to make sure we nominate qualified people."
The Career Center is scheduling a week-long program on career development for early January, inviting everyone, as executive director Sheila Curran put it, to "take the initiative"--especially women. Career Week, which Curran expects to attract more than 200 alumni and 1,000 current students, will take place Jan. 25 to Jan. 31. While the networking events, workshops and 29 conference programs are geared for both men and women, she said she hopes more women than men will attend. Curran also noted that after the University released the Women's Initiative report, the Career Center changed the name of one conference program from "Diversity in the Workplace" to "Difference in the Workplace" with the intent of including women's issues.
"We want people to test their assumptions," she said. "We want to create an opportunity for students to explore widely the breadth of opportunity after graduation."
Mentoring opportunities abound at the University but often go overlooked, she said, and a need for more outspoken female role models persists.
"In my experience, men are more likely to see a job that they're not qualified for and go for it anyway; women are more likely to hold back," Curran said. "We want to tease out the things in their background that will be attractive to employers."
Paul Grantham, director of human resources communications, said most of the proposed changes to his department, which include a mentoring program and a revised tuition reimbursement program for employees, are still in the design and development stage.
"The way the president introduced it is that the impetus for looking at a lot of these issues were for women, but most of the recommendations coming out of it benefit men and women at Duke," Grantham said.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.