Workforce homogeneity limits creativity, discovery, and job satisfaction; nonetheless, eighty-one percent of US science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) university faculty members are men. The relative dearth of women in the field is a long-recognized problem--but it's one that may be on its way to a solution. Using a three-step intervention derived from self-determination theory, an interdisciplinary team from Montana State University demonstrated a low-cost way to improve gender diversity in STEM-faculty hiring. The results were impressive, with search committees in the intervention group 6.3 times more likely to make an offer to a woman candidate. Although the focus was on increasing women faculty within STEM, the intervention can be adapted to other scientific and academic communities to advance diversity along any dimension.
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You can read the full article: "Now Hiring! Empirically Testing a Three-Step Intervention to Increase Faculty Gender Diversity in STEM" here: http://bioscience.oxfordjournals.org/content/65/11/1084.full , and listen to a podcast interview on BioScience Talks with Dr. Alexander Zale, a member of the research team on the study, here: http://bioscienceaibs.libsyn.com/episode-6-a-successful-intervention-boosts-the-gender-diversity-of-stem-faculty
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