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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine two types of departmental interventions focused on creating healthier and more equitable academic departments as well as enhancing faculty members’ capacity for collective dialogue, goals and work. Both interventions were informed by the “dual-agenda” approach and focused on targeted academic units over a prolonged period.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses a variety of qualitative and quantitative data (including National Science Foundation (NSF) ADVANCE indicator data) to assess the potential of dual-agenda informed interventions in reducing gendered structures and gendered dynamics.FindingsThe authors outline essential components of a dual-agenda model for maximizing success in creating more gender equitable work organizations and discuss why the authors are more optimistic about the dual-agenda approaches than many past researchers have been in terms of the potential of the dual-agenda model for promoting more equal opportunities in work organizations.Originality/valueMost previous dual-agenda projects referenced in the literature have been carried out in non-academic contexts. The projects examined here, however, were administered in the context of multiple academic departments at two medium-sized, public US universities. Although other NSF ADVANCE institutional transformation institutions have included extensive department-focused transformation efforts (e.g. Brown University, Purdue University and Syracuse University), the long-term benefits of these efforts are not yet fully understood; nor have systematic comparisons been made across institutions.

This study sought to understand predictors of faculty satisfaction with promotion and tenure processes and reasonableness of expectations in the context of a striving institution. The factors we investigated included discipline (high-consensus [science and math] vs. low-consensus [humanities and social sciences]); demographic variables; and institutional support including mentoring, collegiality, work-life integration, and college commitment to faculty members’ fields. High-consensus faculty members were less satisfied with promotion and tenure processes than were low-consensus faculty members (p < .01). Faculty members who were more satisfied with collegiality (p < .001) and with college commitment to their fields (p < .05) were more satisfied with promotion and tenure processes. Faculty members who were more satisfied with work-life integration and mentoring were more satisfied with reasonableness of expectations (p < .05).

Female faculty may experience disproportionate caregiving-type responsibilities in the academy and at home. A web-based survey inquired about the impact of childcare responsibilities on research-related travel. A convenience sample of full-time faculty participated ( n = 127). From the overwhelmingly female faculty respondents (81.3%), results show that childcare issues impact their ability to plan research travel, submit to professional conferences, and travel to give an invited talk. Faculty rank, discipline, and whether their partner was employed at the same university negatively impacted their ability to travel. Work/life travel policies may reduce barriers to travel, hence reducing a type of cumulative disadvantage.

This study compares administrative and caseworker perspectives on service delivery processes in rural areas in an Appalachian state with high levels of poverty and unemployment and limited economic resources for investment and development. The focus of this study is on the implementation of West Virginia Works, West Virginia’s public assistance program that was adopted in response to new federal welfare law enacted in 1996. The data source used in this research comes from focus groups with approximately 80 caseworkers and 5 West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources administrators with key knowledge of welfare reform in West Virginia. Implications for service delivery and public policy are discussed.

In the wake of welfare reform, many poor people have exhausted their benefits and must now live with less government support. While all of these former welfare recipients are struggling, some are experiencing housing problems that are quite severe. This article uses survey data on former welfare recipients who have used up the maximum time limits for receiving welfare to better understand three core explanations for rural housing problems among the poor: community, individual, and family factors. We estimate models to weigh the relative effects of these factors on the likelihood of experiencing several housing outcomes, finding that rural location is the most consistent predictor of housing outcomes, predicting home ownership, and whether families reside in low-quality housing. We also find that individual and family factors affect the type of housing one has. We conclude that housing policies must be tailored to improve specific housing outcomes.

The devolution of state authority embedded in the 1996 federal welfare reform law (since reaffirmed in the 2006 reauthorization of this law) has enormous implications for economically disadvantaged adults and their families as well as those responsible for the local management and delivery of these welfare services. Although over a decade of welfare reform “impact” research currently exists, the majority of this literature focuses primarily on welfare clients in urban areas. This study identifies service delivery processes in rural areas in an Appalachian state with high levels of poverty and unemployment, limited economic resources for investment and development, and inadequate administrative capacity. Welfare reform affects urban and rural beneficiaries differently. This article highlights (1) the challenges faced by TANF caseworkers who implement welfare reform policies on a daily basis in West Virginia, (2) how these daily practices are heavily influenced by cultural and organization practices, and (3) the “chaining of social problems” found within welfare reform. The data used in this research come from focus groups with approximately eighty caseworkers in West Virginia. Implications for service delivery and public policy are discussed.

The purpose of this qualitative study is to examine former welfare recipients' perspectives of the system in which they participated. This research utilizes open-ended responses from a 1999 comprehensive, representative statewide survey of 962 West Virginia TANF recipients to document the conceptual themes that emerge in former welfare recipients' suggestions for changing the current system. The results indicate that while there are common themes (i.e., policy delivery and design) in former recipients' critiques of the welfare system, these individuals are not uniform in their assessments of this program. This research reaffirms the importance of including historically marginalized voices in policy debates regarding policy construction and evaluation.

West Virginia is a rural Appalachian state with a long history of economic disadvantage and poverty. Consequently, state leaders chose to endorse aggressive case closure policies in response to the new demands placed on them by the Personal Responsibility and Work Reconciliation Act of 1996. Clearing the rolls was way to contain state costs has serious short-term and long-term financial implications for low income adults and their children in the state. Using data from a 1999 state-wide survey of former West Virginia WORKS recipients, this research examines the socioeconomic well-being of needy parents approximately one year after leaving the system. It is clear from these analyses that former welfare recipients are not all equally likely to improve their financial status and move toward self-sufficiency.

Although there has been a welcome increase in discussion about gender disparities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), broad participation of women from all backgrounds in academic STEM will not be achieved until institutions are transformed. A long-range view is needed to change the rules of the game, such that institutional culture and practices create workplaces where all scientists and engineers want to be. We lay out a six-point plan of what needs to change, who should participate, and how actors outside of the academy should have direct involvement in the process.

Purpose To implement and assess an intervention designed to promote gender equity and organizational change within STEM departments in two Colleges at a single Research High university. Department climate impacts the retention and success of women faculty. Methodology/approach A survey was administered both before and after the department intervention in order to capture departmental change on variables that measure a positive climate for female faculty. Findings Across all of the science and engineering departments, levels of Collective Efficacy toward Gender Equity significantly increased while levels of Conflict significantly decreased after the department facilitation. In the science departments, the level of Vicarious Experience of Gender Equity among faculty significantly increased while in the engineering departments levels of faculty Dependence significantly decreased. There was a statistically significant decrease in Optimism about Gender Equity among the science faculty. Practical implications Organizational change within universities has been documented as slow and labor intensive. Departmental climate, particularly interactions with colleagues, remains an area wherein women continue to feel excluded. The departmental intervention resulted in measurable improvements in key aspects of climate critical to women’s success (e.g., reductions in conflict and dependence; increases in collective efficacy) as well as more realistic view of the effort needed to attain gender equity (decrease in Optimism).

This research uses the 1987 National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth to construct a national and Appalachian subsample of workers at the initial stages of their labor force participation and during a national economic recovery. This contextual research examines the impact of education, work effort, type of job, marital status, family size, Appalachian residence, urban or rural location, unemployment rate, and manufacturing concentration on the incomes of women and men. The results document the overall depressive effect that living in Appalachia has on the incomes of both male and female workers.

Past research shows that certain individuals (i.e., women and people of color) in particular places (i.e., in the South or in rural areas) are more susceptible than others to economic hardship. Many researchers have also argued that this economic vulnerability translates into a disadvantaged position within the welfare system. Both labor market and welfare inequality have been intensified by economic transformations in the U.S. economy during the last 20 years. This research examines the connection between labor market vulnerability and welfare inequity in one particular social insurance program, the unemployment insurance program (i.e., whether or not unemployed workers receive unemployment insurance benefits). Using multivariate logistic regression, this research identifies differences in unemployment insurance receipt due to human capital, household and labor market variables and how these effects vary from year to year. The data for this study come from the National Longitudinal Surveys for Y...

The purpose of the retrospective epidemiologic study was to determine smoking prevalence and its correlates among pregnant women. Data for the study were collected from 477 randomly selected medical records of pregnant women attending a Kentucky obstetrical clinic. Logistic regression analysis, when controlling for age and education, showed that significant predictors of smoking prior to pregnancy were being married and being a woman of color. Significant demographic predictors of smoking at initiation of antenatal care were being married, being a woman of color, early age at onset of smoking, and number of cigarettes smoked per day.

In this study, we examine how sports commentators minimized women’s athletic participation, abilities, and achievements in the 1992 televised “Battle of the Champions” tennis competition between Martina Navratilova and Jimmy Connors. Using content analysis, we found clear differences in naming practices, adjective and adverb use, amount and type of praise and criticism, and character flaws attributed to the players. In the unique case of male versus female athletic competition it also becomes apparent that commentators “gender” the athletic event. Although women have made great strides in sport, their achievements will continue to be meaningless as long as sports broadcasters undermine, trivialize, and minimize women’s performances through biased commentaries.

The purposes of this study were to determine: (1) the prevalence of psychoactive medication and alcohol use and (2) the relationship among psychoactive medications, alcohol use, and falls in a sample of 1028 independently living women and men, aged 55 and older. Twenty-six percent of the sample reported falling, 28% were taking one or more psychoactive drugs, and 38% drank alcohol during the past year. Analyses with logistic regression indicate that predictors of falls were psychoactive drug use, age, and number of illnesses. Living alone, frequency of alcohol use, and gender were not significant predictors.