Women and Entrepreneurship
WCC continues to be an active part of the grassroots ACS coalition, the Chemical Entrepreneurship Council. Our goal is to help women chemists gain the skills necessary to translate their innovative research to tangible products and services.
Partnerships
Reflection
Openness
Grants
Resources
Education
Site Visits
Success
In 2002, the American Chemical Society provided seed funding and launched a pilot project aimed at facilitating the full participation and advancement of women scientists and engineers in the chemical sciences. The overall project is called PROGRESS, and it consists of seven independent but interconnected programs:
- Corporate Recognition
- Web-based Resource Center
- Be Visible: funding seminar speakers
- ACS Course on Business and Leadership Skills for Women in the Chemical Workforce
- Thriving in the Workplace Roadshows
- GROW: Grants for Renewal Opportunities for Women
- Academic Awareness/Site Visits
Published Books

Successful Women in Chemistry: Corporate America’s Contribution to Science
This book is an inspirational reading for anyone interested in achieving success in chemistry or any technical field. Insightful opening remarks by ACS Executive Director Madeleine Jacobs underscore the book’s timeliness for today’s readers.

Mom the Chemistry Professor
The goal of this project was to publish an ACS-WCC-approved book containing accounts from a diverse group of mothers who are chemistry professors in order to inform and inspire all women considering an academic career and motherhood. In this second edition, which is a project of the Women Chemists Committee (WCC) of the American Chemical Society (ACS), 40 inspirational personal accounts describe the challenges and rewards of combining motherhood with an academic career in chemistry. The authors are all women at different stages of their career and from a range of institution types, in both tenure and non-tenure track positions. The authors include women from different racial and ethnic backgrounds, who became mothers at different stages of their career, and who have a variety of family structures.
Successful Women in Chemistry
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Women in STEM Groups
- American Institute of Chemical Engineering Women’s Initiative Committee
- Association for Women in Science
- American Association of University Women
- Committee on the Advancement of Women Chemists
- Graduate Women in Science
- Iota Sigma Pi
- National Academies’ Committee on Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine
- Society of Women Engineers
- Women Entrepreneurs in Science and Technology