by NIOSH – Nat Inst for Occupational Safety & Health
Report Examines Status of Women Faculty in Science and Engineering:
[Via News from the National Academies]
Although women are still underrepresented in the applicant pool for faculty positions in math, science, and engineering at major research universities, those who do apply are interviewed and hired at rates equal to or higher than those for men, says a new report from the National Research Council. Similarly, women are underrepresented among those considered for tenure, but those who are considered receive tenure at the same or higher rates than men.
[More]
This report has some interesting findings. I’ll have to read the full report and look at the numbers. There is also a powerpoint presentation and an audio of the briefing. Nice to see such openness and transparency without have to spend an arm and a leg.
The key findings, if I am reading it correctly, are that universities are hiring and promoting women at slightly higher rates than the applicant pool they start with. It would be very worrisome if the fraction of women hired was substantially less than the number that applied.
If you look at the 6 disciplines that were examined (Biology, Chemistry, Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Physics) four of them do not show a huge drop in the applicant pools for women based on the percentage of them getting PhDs. That is, 12% of the PhDs in Electrical Engineering were women and 11% of the applicants for tenure track positions were women.
In Biology and chemistry, however, there are huge drops. Thirty-two percent of all Chemistry PhDs are women but only 18% of the applicants are. For biology, it is 45% and 26% respectively. For some reason, many women simply chose not to apply for these positions while many men do.
The report found that many approaches to increasing the number of females in the applicant pool were ineffective. What made a big difference were whether there were women on the search committee and whether it was chaired by a women. Then there was a positive increase in the applicant pool.
The report also found little difference in the professional lives of male and female faculty. There were little differences in the number that chaired committees or were part of a research team. Generally there were no differences between the number of published papers or grants (with the exception of biology where men had much more grant money than women).
Interestingly, female assistant professors who had a mentor had a 93% chance of grant funding versus only a 68% chance for those with no mentor. For men, it made no difference whether they had a mentor or not, about 85%.
When women are considered for tenure, they succeed at the same rate as men. Again, the problem is that there is a drop off from the number of assistant professors. There is no explanation in the report for why fewer women are considered for tenure than men. Just that when they are considered, they succeed.
Now, why there is a drop off from PhD to assistant professor and another one from assistant professor to tenured professor ill be the goal of further investigation. It does appear that the universities have little problem hiring and promoting those women that present themselves.
I’ll add my two cents worth, speaking from personal experience. The path to a tenured position (i.e. getting a PhD, doing a postdoc, applying for a tenure track position, etc.) is not only arduous but often selects for a particular sort of personality. There is a very defined process that sometimes makes no sense but has to be followed. There is often a very strong hierarchical and authoritarian voice in the process. There are department politics that can hamper one’s career.
Getting a tenured position is sometimes more dependent on playing the game correctly than doing great research.
A lot of men chose not to force themselves to fit inside the box that is a tenure-track position at a research university. I suspect even more women refuse to.
I would imagine most find another game to play, one that matches their personality and outlook on research/life. I made that decision almost 30 years ago and went into industry. I would be curious to see where many of the women PhDs decided to go.
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