The Academic Women’s Network was established in 1990 by women faculty at WUSM to promote professional interactions and career development and to assist and mentor women in science and medicine.

We provide our members an opportunity to network, advocate, inspire and learn.

What do we do?

Act as a liaison between women faculty and the administration.

Serve on the Gender Equity Committee
Meet regularly with the Dean
Collaborate with the Office of Faculty Affairs and other administrative offices

Advocate for policies supportive of women faculty.

Promotion and endowed professorship equity
Pay equity
Family leave policy
On-site child care facilities
Tenure clock stoppage

Organize seminars and workshops on issues pertaining to career advancement for women faculty.
Host networking dinners and events.
Confer mentoring, leadership and service awards.

AWN Board Endorsed Programs & Initiatives for Gender Equity at WUSM

The AWN advocates for professional equity for women faculty at WUSM. WUSM has the potential to lead in this important aspect of diversity, improving our ability to recruit and retain the most talented faculty. By establishing policies and programs with embedded accountability that support professional equity for women, WUSM will ensure that women’s unique and diverse contributions are recognized, valued, and rewarded appropriately.We support the following initiatives as important steps towards these goals:

Perform regular gender pay equity audits.
The current audit is underway, but got started three years late. Audits should be comparable across time, results made available to faculty and recommendations from last audit (2010) and new audit implemented.
Train campus leaders in gender pay equity issues.
Include gender equity issues in annual department chair reviews.
Track and incentivize gender equity in faculty numbers, rank, time to promotion, all aspects of pay (starting salary, raises, z factor), start-up & retention packages, space allocation, and endowed professorships.
Train campus leaders in best practices for improving gender equity and minimizing the impact of gender bias.
Track and incentivize gender balance in seminars/symposia.
Provide support grants for junior women faculty with children.

Academic Women's Network at Washington University School of Medicine