Commission sheds light on female professors

Recent studies conducted by the University Commission on Women show that compared to other universities, the number of female faculty members at both the associate and full professor level is lacking.

According to a 2012 Status on Women Report conducted by the UCW, women are underrepresented as tenure or tenure-track faculty at universities across the nation.

At the assistant professor level, the male-to-female ratio is about 1:1, said Beverly McPhail, director of the Womens Resource Center and longtime secretary to the UCW. At the associate professor level, male-to-female is about 2:1, and at the full professor level, the male-to-female ratio is 6:1.

The University Commission on Women is responsible for informing and advising President Khator and other senior administrative leaders, as well as the general university community, on issues and concerns that have an impact on women at the University.

The Commission is currently investigating and benchmarking policies and practices with peer institutions and also aligning our accomplishments and mission with Universities Strategic Initiatives, said Vince Lee, a newly appointed member of the Commission.

In 2007, approximately 62.4 percent of the faculty members at United Statespublic four-year institutions were male and 37.6 percent were female, according to the U.S. Department of Education in 2007. At UH, 71.2 percent were male and 28.8 percent were female since Fall 2010, according to the Office of Institutional Research in 2010.

To me, the gender gap in attaining full professor rank is probably the most striking, said Aimee Chin, associate professor at the Department of Economics and chair member of one of the subgroups of the UCW, the Children on Campus Committee.

I am an economist who spends considerable time teaching and using statistical methods to separate causal relationships from mere correlations, she said, so I very much understand that many factors underlie these observed gender gaps reported there. But the decrease in percentage of females from the entry level to top level is quite dramatic, and one has to ask what can be done to develop and retain talented female faculty.

Differences in the numbers of faculty members, both male and female, are not the only staggering statistic UH women currently face.

The numbers presented in the report also show that men on average out-earn women in almost every category, McPhail said.

Link:
Commission sheds light on female professors