In March of last year, we invited a team from the American Physical Society's Committee on the Status of Women in Physics to visit the General Sciences Divisions and evaluate the climate for women scientists. The evaluation consisted of a pre-visit survey, to which 81% of division employees responded, and discussions with female and mixed-gender groups of students, postdocs, and staff in each division. After the visit, the team provided a formal report on its findings.The report comments on many positive aspects of the working environment in General Sciences, including existing policies to promote a healthy work/life balance, but it also points out several opportunities for improvement. We are taking advantage of these opportunities in the General Sciences Divisions so that Berkeley Lab continues to be an equitable, productive and attractive workplace for all scientists.

• The report found that individuals' personal experiences in the workplace strongly depend on their direct supervisor. In response, the Berkeley Lab Institute is designing a new supervisor training program, which will help people in management positions to effectively support their employees. We will implement this program as mandatory training for supervisors. In addition, the division will take steps to initiate mentoring relationships for new hires, and to allow all employees to provide feedback on supervisor performance.
• In keeping with the Laboratory's diversity goals, and in order to avoid the misperception of bias, it is essential that personnel searches be conducted transparently and consistently across the General Sciences Divisions. Future search committees will be briefed by the division directors on the benefits of a diverse workplace and their role in carrying out division goals and practices.
• Because the General Sciences Division has relatively small numbers of women graduate students, postdocs, and staff, maintaining a healthy climate for the current population will require increasing the visibility of women scientists and providing opportunities for women to network with larger communities of women at the Laboratory. Besides working with Human Resources to introduce a new brown-bag luncheon series to connect women from General Sciences and other divisions, we will collaborate with seminar organizers to monitor and increase the number of women and underrepresented minority speakers in all division seminars.

The quality of the working climate we provide for underrepresented groups is an area in which the General Sciences Division, and all of Berkeley Lab, can exercise leadership for other research institutions. By taking positive action to create an inclusive and supportive climate for women at the Laboratory we will make a better workplace for all of us.

Steve Gourlay, AFRD Division Director
James Symons, NSD Division Director
James Siegrist, Physics Division Director