Women in Academia: What Can Be Done to Help Women Achieve Tenure?.

Abstract

Women are not tenured at the same rate they are receiving PhDs, and less likely to be tenured when compared to their male counterparts. Reasons women have difficulty achieving tenure include not discussing important information about an academic appointment with colleagues, working part time or as adjunct faculty, being involved in “pastoral or administrative” work, not having a realistic understanding of how important research is when untenured, and experiencing non academic issues. Interventions to alleviate this situation include departmental/campus policies before/during/after the woman is hired. Before being hired it is important to provide female faculty mentors to bright/capable women doctoral students and help them prepare for the academy by prioritizing scholarship over teaching and encouraging publications. During the hiring process it is useful to target women through advertising/recruiting at conferences, consider hiring current female doctoral students after completion of a post doctoral experience at another institution, and appointing women faculty as chair/members of search committees. After women are hired it is important to improve transparency/equitability/inclusivity of tenure guidelines, assist women create a plan of action related to tenure criteria and their own skills/abilities, provide formal/informal mentoring opportunities, improve the departmental/campus climate regarding female faculty and interaction with male colleagues, and adopt family friendly policies to better integrate family/work obligations by providing flexibility in when/where/how work is done, or offering job sharing or part time employment options. Introduction Achieving tenure is one of the most important transitions a person experiences if choosing an academic career. Considered a rite of passage, it reflects one‟s professional standing and accomplishments, and if not achieved may be the reason a faculty member either leaves the academy entirely or seeks a position at another institution (Reybold, & Alamia, 2008). Tenure also often defines one‟s future career trajectory as it reflects the academy‟s recognition of the faculty member‟s potential and contribution (Defillippi & Author, 1994). Normally, academic performance toward tenure is based on a trinity of faculty roles and consequent contributions. Included in the expectations are an evaluation of research productivity including the quality and number of publications (scholarship); student ratings of teaching; and citizenship/service to the institution, or one‟s community or discipline (Reybold & Alamia, 2008; Todd, Madill, Shaw, & Bown, 2008). However the procedure used to evaluate faculty accomplishments so one may achieve tenure tends to be quite rigid and bureaucratic (Stewart, Ornstein & Drakich, 2009), and the time frame within which the information needs to be gathered, which is typically six years, makes it difficult for many women to be successful. In fact, according to Stewart and colleagues (2009) women have historically and frequently been excluded from the academy and especially the higher professorial ranks. In addition, they are often underrepresented in faculty considered for tenure and less likely to be tenured when Forum on Public Policy 2 compared to their male counterparts even though they receive PhDs at the same rate as males (Harris, 2009; West & Curtis, 2006; Wolfinger, Mason, & Goulden, 2009). Although there have been improvements in this situation, and the proportion of full-time female faculty members in the United States almost doubled from 1984 to 2008, women continue to leave the academic pipeline, especially from the tenure track (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2008). In addition, according to the American Association of University Professors (2010), when looking at women nationally, 31% hold non-tenure-track positions, 26% are on the tenure track, and 43% have tenure. Compared to male faculty, a much higher percentage of men hold tenure, and there are much fewer men on the non-tenure-track than women. Indeed, women in academia have challenges related to achieving tenure their male counterparts do not have. Why is this? What can we do to alleviate the situation? The following paragraphs will initially discuss why women have challenges and difficulties achieving tenure and then offer suggestions to alleviate the situation.

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