Gender Diversity: Women Faculty In Higher Education

Gender Diversity: Women Faculty In Higher Education

Today’s situation in higher education is far from an equal participation of women and men in the different stages of their higher education career.   Gender research has made a call for more transparency and accountability in academic recruitment and selection in order to overcome the inequality practices that have led to an underrepresentation of women among university professors (Gender Equality in Academia, 2008).   With the exposure of this widespread problem, when colleges and universities release reports about the state of gender equity on their faculties, administrators quickly follow up with a caveat to explain the imbalance in the numbers.   It accredits the lack of balance with the fact that most of the senior of full professors are all men; however the greater share of women among junior professors (assistant and early associate) should provide reassurance that the imbalance will resolve itself over time (Inside Higher ED, 2009).   There can be many scenarios that lead to the inequity of women within the professorial ranks including: recruitment practices (transparency and accountability); the teaching aspect versus academic research; the availability of women PhDs in specific discipline and; gender biases and stereotypes.
Shifting the gender order in academia towards a more balanced representation of men and women in all academic ranks has been on the agenda of many universities for some decades (Academe, 2011).   According to an article in the Los Angeles Times, “women are severely underrepresented on university faculties in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics” (LA Time, 2004).   This trend even holds true in disciplines where female doctorate recipients outnumber males (e.g. psychology, sociology, history, and other social sciences).   According to Associate Professor James Thompson at the University of Minnesota, “the underrepresentation of women and minorities can be blamed on universities’ infrastructures and tenured...