Provosts Announce Women's Initiative Network

An unprecedented effort to support and promote women at UC is now underway. Provosts Donald Harrison and Anthony Perzigian announced the formation of a new Women's Initiative Network (WIN), which is aimed at helping all UC women, whether they're students, staff, faculty, or alumni.

Professors Cynthia Berryman-Fink and Urmila Ghia were appointed co-chairs. They will be helped by 19 others involved in women's issues or programs at UC.

"From all indications, an ambitious and bold agenda has been set that can be supported and coordinated through WIN," said Perzigian, explaining how WIN builds upon a foundation which has existed over the years.

"It's a massive project," admitted Berryman-Fink. "We're covering the entire landscape from students to alumni. We're looking at issues of salary, visibility, mentoring, retention and the general climate for women at UC."

However, she's excited and motivated by the opportunity to affect an entire institution. "To achieve all of our goals would create a totally welcoming climate for women. There would be better outcomes for students, stronger leadership, more equitable policies, more family-friendly policies. The entire institution would benefit."

Berryman-Fink pointed out that UC is not alone in looking up the organizational chart and discovering that female deans and vice presidents are a rarity. MIT recently hosted a meeting of presidents and high-level administrators from nine top research universities. They were all facing similar problems.

"The climate for women in academia is not as good as it could be. Many universities are not treating women equitably. We're probably behind corporate America."

WIN coordinators quickly went to work assessing where UC is and what can be done in the short-term and long-term to improve the status of women.

"We outlined eight goals for the WIN group, and we ordered them according to their achievability. We wanted to show outcomes and successes early, to maintain momentum of the effort and the commitment of the university community," explained Urmila Ghia.

Ghia has long been involved with women's projects at UC, including the Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) program and the summer Research Experience for Women Undergraduates (REWU) program. She says she has seen the impact of a good mentoring relationship and wants more women to benefit.

"Having had that close working relationship with a mentee, the biggest gain I saw from REWU was instilling confidence in these young women. Expanding the mentoring program to all levels and enhancing opportunities for communication will be very valuable. It can make such a difference in one's quality of life."

The goals for WIN begin with increasing visibility for the accomplishments of women, enhancing communication among women, and promoting mentoring. In the long run, WIN also hopes to increase the number of women in high-level administrative positions and get permanent funding for projects that support the initiative's mission and vision.

Berryman-Fink estimates it will take three to five years to accomplish most of the goals and objectives, but she's very optimistic about WIN's chances for success.

"Because of the players at the table… because of the very high level of support and the fact that we're coordinating what already exists and set realistic objectives, I'm very confident we'll succeed."