Acknowledgments

1
American Indian Women in Science
Winona Littlebird University of Montana,
Bridges to Baccalaureate
Abstract My project involved comparing the
percentage of female professors to female
students at Tribal Colleges Universities
(TCUs). This would help support my hypothesis
that women in science are underrepresented in TCU
science faculties. When I collected the data I
found that the proportion for female students is
greater then the proportion of female faculty.
Also this information is very crucial in creating
future funding for American Indian Women in
Science.

• Results
• The two graphs represent the total female student
  enrollment and the total female science faculty
  in TCUs. As you can see in the graphs, I only
  had five colleges participate in my summer
  research project.
• There are more female science students then
  female science faculty
• Not all tribal colleges offer science related
  degrees
• When comparing female science majors compared to
  total science majors there are more females in
  science then males.

Introduction Recent studies show that women are
unrepresented in the science and engineering
fields which could harm our future in these
fields (Nelson, 2002). We also believe that
American Indian women in science are
underrepresented. Attempts to attempts to
increase these numbers have been made but the
progress is quite slow. These attempts include
increased funding for females who are studying
science. Many American Indians begin their
post-secondary schooling at tribal colleges,
which makes it very important for female science
mentors to be there to encourage students to
pursue their educational goals in science. It
appears that there are almost no female science
professors who teach at tribal colleges. The main
focus of this research is Native American Women
in Science. This research project involves
contacting all Tribal Colleges and Universities
(TCU), in order to get a head count of all female
science majors and female faculty to compare the
proportion of women students to the proportion of
women faculty. This data will be used to
determine the exact percentage of American Indian
females who teach at TCUs and compare with the
percentage of female students. This data will
also be used as a recruitment tool whereby
American Indian women in science-related fields
will be approached with the possibility of
becoming future mentors or professors.
Materials and Methods The Internet and telephone
were the main sources for communicating with all
TCUs. In addition, all TCUs were sent emails that
explained the research project and solicited
their help in gathering the necessary
information. After sending the emails, telephone
calls were made. Phone calls were made more then
once, the least being one and the most being
three to four. Phone call discussions focused on
a series of questions that pertained to the total
number of students enrolled, total number of
students in science related vocations, total
number of female students in science, total
number of faculty in science, total number of
female faculty, and how many of these students
and faculty are American Indian. Acronyms
TSE- Total student enrollment TF- Total
Faculty FSE- Female student enrollment TFS-
Total Science Faculty ISC- Indian student
count FSF- Female Science Faculty TSM- Total
science majors NSF- Native Science Faculty FSM-
Female science majors I collected the
headcounts from the following TCUs, Bay Mills
Community College, Haskell Indian Nations, Untied
Tribes Technical College and Comanche Nation
College.
Discussion and Conclusions When beginning this
research, I hypothesized that American Indian
Women in Science were underrepresented. I thought
that there was going to be no women professors at
any of the TCUs. However, after receiving the
data from the TCUs, I saw that although there are
not many female professors, there are some. Most
TCUs have more female students in science than
male students. So my hypothesis is correct and
women are underrepresented in the science
faculty, but there are more female science
students than expected. To provide role models
for women science students at TCUS it is
important to increase the proportion of women on
TCU science faculties. The insights provided by
this data will be extremely helpful in the future
by instigating the creation of additional funding
for American Indian Women in Science.
Literature Cited Nelson, Dr. D. J., Rogers,
D.C. (2002). A National Analysis of Diversity in
Science and Engineering Faculties at Research
Universities. http//www.curu.edu/admin/aces/sea
rch/diversityreport.pdf
Acknowledgments Research Mentor
Penny Kukuk Funding NIGMS -
Bridges to the Baccalaureate Other
I would like to thank Penny Kukuk
Kailey Shade and Iris Heavy Runner-
Pretty Paint.