#GAReads | US national academy pushes to make grants contingent on gender equity
1970 TEKTITE II all-woman team in crews quarters, including marine biologist Sylvia Earle (second from left). Photo credit: OAR/National Undersea Research Program (NURP).
“US national academy pushes to make grants contingent on gender equity”:
The US national academy is urging funders to subject institutions to ‘equity audits’ to increase the representation of women — especially those from minority ethnic groups — in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM).
Among other recommendations in a 200-page report, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine proposes that, as part of the grant-evaluation process, funding agencies conduct thorough examinations of institutions’ policies to promote gender equity. In theory, institutions would do more to improve gender equity if funding were at stake, says Vivian Pinn, a member of the committee that created the report and the founding director of the Office of Research on Women’s Health at the US National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.