Instrumentation & Measurement Magazine 26-1 - 24

womenI&M continued
in
The IMS promotes diversity intentionally, strategically and
systematically in the words of our former President and women's
and diversity champion, Dr. Ruth Dyer, who is currently
IMS Administrative Committee (AdCom) Member at Large
and IEEE Division II Director. The IMS governing documents
reflect this belief, and the Society Handbook commits the IMS
to preserve diversity of gender, age, geographic home, and
sector of employment. The Conference Management Guidelines
guide conference organizers to implement this approach
in the composition of panels, keynote speakers, and tutorial
organizers.
The synthetic wording of the governing documents is but a
pale reflection of the strength of the belief of all the volunteers
involved, of the implementation effort that is regularly spent
and the successes achieved in all sectors of activity of IMS. Putting
these principles to work is done by serving and growing
the Membership accordingly.
Diversity, as a value and a goal, is a very broad concept.
Gender diversity, first limited to increased participation of
women, was one of the spearheading efforts to make it happen.
The commitment of the governing documents reflects also
the IEEE Women in Engineering (WIE) Pledge [1] that the IMS
has taken.
Actually, taking this Pledge has come naturally, as it barely
formalizes the goal to advance women's participation, and diversity
more in general, that the IMS has pursued in the last
20+ years [2].
Twenty years ago, the AdCom of the IMS included only one
member from outside North America and no women at all.
The first explicit and effective effort to bring on board a diverse
representation, particularly women and members from all of
the IEEE Regions, started with Stephen A. Dyer, now IEEE Life
Fellow. He joined the AdCom through his position of Editor in
Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement
and initiated the change by including women and diverse
candidates on the AdCom ballot throughout his subsequent
years of service to the IMS.
Finally, in 1999, Ruth Dyer was elected and later took on
her first officer role in 2007. She was joined by a second woman
only in 2009. But the change was in motion, and it snowballed
into the years 2010 to 2021 when the presence of women in
the AdCom oscillated between six and nine voting members.
Since 2007, the IMS has had at least one woman among the
appointed Representatives of Undergraduate students, Graduate
students or Young Professionals. The presence of female
members in the AdCom and in the officer group is particularly
significant because it represents the IMS leadership and decision-making
body, and it is chosen by the members. So, the
story of women being represented in the AdCom is a story of
women's voices being heard; of women participation in setting
the goals, the strategies and the means; and of reflecting the desire
for diversity of the voting membership.
24
Many more Presidents, Officers, AdCom members and
volunteers have greatly contributed to moving the IMS to a
leading position in professional societies with the focus on
women participation and diversity. One for all, the IEEE Fellow
Reza Zoughi, the 2014-2015 IMS President and strong
advocate for women, who has brought on board the AdCom
outstanding women, faithful to his mantra that quality is a priority,
a good example that in no case has the IMS has let go of
its high standards, which can easily go hand in hand with proactive
diversification.
Thoughts from Women Inclusion
Leaders for the Careers of Women in Tech
The importance of advocates, and in particular male advocates,
in advancing women's participation cannot be stressed
enough. The IMS has been as example of this for years. Male
leaders and active members have shown support with their
presence at women's events and with actions, like nominating
female candidates for awards, positions, and responsibilities.
This advocacy and allyship now needs to evolve into sponsorship,
especially in the industry. This call comes from the IEEE
WIE International Leadership Conference 2022, and in particular
from leaders in industry [3] who advocate for mentorsto
advise and support their female mentees on a one-to-one basis.
A Mentor turned Sponsor will actively promote her/his
Mentee to the outside world. This means, for example [3], telling
others all of the positive things usually told to the Mentee
when she is not present. In other words, her Sponsor is ready
to fight for her.
A good match Mentor-Mentee is not easy to realize and
there may be untapped resources in a spread-out professional
organization like IMS, especially at places where a geographically
local critical mass of experts may be missing. Hence, the
brand-new Mentoring Program of the IMS was created.
The scarcity of women in the technical sectors is more severe
at the higher levels of seniority and leadership. This is a
critical point in promoting diversity and gender balance. The
IMS sets the example with leadership that not only is diverse
and includes many women, but genuinely engages in sponsoring
women in roles of responsibility, which in turn will offer
the opportunity to act, to broaden participation further.
Taking a look at the current numbers of the IMS for 2022
shown in Fig. 1, it is noticeable how the female representation
in the governing body of the society, the Ad-Com and the
Officers, a portion of the group shown in Fig. 2, exceeds significantly
the representation in the Membership. Of course,
we have to consider the relatively small number of the AdCom
members (27) and the Officers; nonetheless, should this
extensive presence of women be considered " unfair " ? This affirmative
action will be equitable until the time when we are
sure enough that there is no artificial barrier keeping women
away from the technology sector, from engineering and from
IEEE Instrumentation & Measurement Magazine
February 2023
Instrumentation & Measurement Magazine 26-1

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