Breaking In (ePub)

Ann Wolverton graduated from the University of Texas at Austin (UT) in 1999 with a PhD in economics. Her 1993 entering class consisted of roughly 30 students, four of whom were women; and no tenure-track women were on UT's economics faculty at the time. Most of the women who started the program finished it. As Ann puts it, "We were a stubborn bunch." Ann served two terms (2007 and 2009) on the Council of Economic Advisers to the President as the senior economist for environment and natural resources. She currently works as an economist for the federal government. Lisa Nagaoka graduated from the University of Washington's PhD program in anthropology program in 2000, specializing in archeology. During much of her time there was a lone female professor on Washington's faculty; and she was the only archaeology professor with children. She notes that, at one time, the archaeology graduate student population was mostly female, two women to every man. The attrition rate for women, however, was twice that of their male counterparts. Lisa has established herself as an international expert in zooarchaeology with a focus on human-environment interactions. Today, she is the sole tenured woman faculty member in the Geography Department at the University of North Texas. Mimi Wolverton graduated from Northern Illinois University with an undergraduate degree in mathematics and a minor in geology in 1967. She encountered no women on the faculty in either department. That year, women in STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) accounted for 8 percent of PhDs. and less than 25 percent of baccalaureate degrees. After working a number of years in heavy construction, she earned both an MBA and a PhD in education leadership and policy studies at Arizona State University and spent several years in academia, retiring in 2007 as a full professor.