In a 2018 report on diversity in the chemical sciences, The Royal Society of Chemistry concluded that gender parity in higher education would never be attained at the current rates of change in retention and promotion. But catalyzing a more rapid change with limited resources requires surgically applying initiatives to maximize their impact.<br/><br/>This talk will outline how one may apply simple steps from the Theory of Constraints to optimally eliminate the bottlenecks to career progress for women. In particular, we will focus a methodology based on 1) identifying a measurable goal; 2) collecting data to identify the bottleneck to achieving this goal; 3) putting the bottleneck to its most beneficial use; 4) subordinating all other factors to this bottleneck; and 5) increasing the capacity of the bottleneck. To drive a better understanding of this approach, I will illustrate its steps by drawing on an inspiring event from the history of chemistry – the isolation of radium – as well as from personal events from my own career.<br/><br/>This talk concludes with a discussion of data-collection approaches to measure diversity and inclusion and how to leverage this data to identify career bottlenecks and optimize improvement efforts.

Catalyzing career throughput: A data-driven approach to targeting initiatives and accelerating female inclusion

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

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