Organizational Environments and Doctoral Degrees Awarded to Women in Science
and Engineering Departments
Mary Frank Fox
School of Public Policy
Georgia Institute of Technology
With data collected in site visits to (22) departments of chemistry, computer science,
electrical engineering, and physics that were (1) consistently low, (2) consistently high,
and (3) most improved in the rates of doctoral degrees awarded to women over a
seventeen-year period, this paper addresses the following questions: What are the
characteristics of departments that have been more or less successful in the proportions of
doctoral degrees awarded to women? Do departments that have consistently high or
improved percentages of degrees awarded to women have different organizational
features from those with consistently low programs? Findings point to the ways in which
high or improved departments have features that set them apart in (1) attention to issues
of participation and performance of women, (2) conceptions of what constitutes a good
environment for graduate study, and (3) clarity of guidelines for graduate study.
However, across fields and departmental categories, criteria for assessment of what
constitutes sufficient work for the Ph.D. are highly decentralized, with implications for
capacity to forge organizational practices/policies.