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Originally established as the Women in Science (WIS) group in 2012 in The Center for The Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology (CASHP), the group was created in a response to the clear and systematic bias against women in academia. WIS was borne out of discussions between senior students and female junior faculty in response to parallel conversations / concerns being discussed at the time amongst the larger female student body as a whole. The goal was to create a space where women could share their experiences and concerns. As is the case in many STEM disciplines, our program has a larger number of female graduate students than males, but fewer female professors. This group was formed in part to help fill that mentorship void.
Our successes include fishbowl discussions and happy hour gatherings with faculty and postdocs at different career stages. We also invited professors from other institutions, like Carol Ward and Shara Bailey pictur, to join in on these conversations, and share their strategies for success in a male-dominated field. Other successes include the group’s involvement in creating a code of conduct for GW’s Koobi Fora Field School that hosts about 30 undergraduate students in Kenya every summer.
After surveying the department, WIS found that while there was a big interest in what we were doing, people in the department would be more inclined to get involved if the group broadened its focus to include diversity in science in the mission.
In 2015 WIS decided to broaden its scope to empowering all underrepresented groups in science and changed its name to Diversity in Science (DIS).
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