Driven by the goal of improving the country’s ability to solve complex problems, a partnership led by UW–Madison’s Wei LAB will help engineering societies apply a newly released international standard on diversity and inclusion. It aims to foster STEM disciplinary excellence by supporting fuller engagement of women and minoritized people in the STEM workforce and academic settings.
Project leaders say science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professional societies are uniquely positioned to advance national-level diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) reform for underrepresented groups. Engineering societies were selected from among the STEM disciplines for the project because engineers are seen as especially attuned to standards.
Project leaders believe positive, evidence-based culture change that succeeds in attracting and retaining more members of underrepresented groups is needed in STEM because evidence shows that well-trained and diverse work teams made up of fully engaged individuals are most effective at solving complicated problems, developing innovative products, and maintaining resilience in crises. But too many work teams in STEM-related business and academia still fail to match this profile.