Women are underrepresented in higher education professorships, according to a recent study that was presented Thursday to a packed house in the Main Building. The striking statistics regarding gender disparity among universities' faculties showed that, while graduation rates for women are increasing, their acceptance into higher status faculty positions is lagging behind.
Women make up about 30 percent of doctorates in social sciences and 20 percent in life sciences, but in full professorships at the top research institutions they make up only 15.4 percent and 14.8 percent, respectively, according to the panel lecture and study "Beyond Bias and Barriers: Fulfilling the Potential of Women in Academic Science and Engineering."
Alice M. Agogino, co-author of the study and professor of mechanical engineering at the University of California at Berkeley, was accompanied by a panel consisting of UT faculty members Jenny Brodbelt, Steven Leslie, Janet Dukerich and Gretchen Ritter.
Despite increasing graduation rates of women, it was shown that the gap between men and women in university faculty only gets worse as the ranks of senior professors increase.
Agogino became interested in faculty discrimination after former Harvard President Lawrence Summers attributed the lack of women in faculty and research positions to inherent biological differences between women and men in January 2005. He also attributed the difference to a lack of work ethic, Agogino said.
"We really could not find anything sex gene related that explained the disparity," she said. "Men are more likely to murder. Does that mean we shouldn't have them on the faculty in front of kids?"
Much of this discrimination is viewed as unintentional, Agogino said. She insists poor applicant pooling as well as differing social tendencies regarding children can sometimes leave well-qualified women candidates without the opportunities they deserve.
"Very few of my professors have been female," said Abigail Cheney, a government freshman. "College is supposed to be a smooth transition from high school, but the faculty isn't the same."
To combat the gender gap, Agogino's study found that fair hiring practice workshops had a positive effect on the diversity of new hires at universities. A positive correlation was also found at universities where graduate students were included in the hiring practices. She also suggested more oversight on the incoming pools of applicants.
When she asked Vice President for Diversity and Community Engagement Gregory Vincent about UT's oversight of hiring practices, he replied that there was no oversight in place yet.
"We were able to do that at Wisonsin, and I agree that it is better," he replied. Vincent, before coming to Austin, was an assistant vice chancellor for academic affairs and director of the Equity and Diverse Resource Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Panel member Gretchen Ritter also said the difference in ratios of men to women professors existed in other areas of academia including her own area, social sciences, especially among senior members.
"The absence of women at the senior level means that women at a lower level don't receive the same amount of support as males," Ritter said.
The lecture was brought to UT by the Center for Women's and Gender Studies.
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