National faculty data show that women continue to be underrepresented at the higher ranks of academia. While a partial explanation for the lower number of women at higher ranks (associate and full professor levels) has to do with the fact that women are newer entrants to academia—as noted in Chapter 3—a concern is that women faculty spend more time in lower ranks and are less likely to be tenured or promoted. In this chapter, we investigate whether women are, in fact, tenured or promoted at lower rates than men and find that national faculty data indicate otherwise. Controlling for the policies at their institutions, women who come up for tenure are tenured at greater rates than men, and women are promoted from associate to full professor at rates similar to those for men. The data, however, do not permit exploration of whether attrition prior to these career milestones occurs differentially by gender.
This chapter considers the advancement of women through the professorial ranks. It focuses on two critical junctures in most tenure-track faculty’s careers: the awarding of tenure and promotion from assistant to associate professor, and promotion to full professor.[85] We do not discuss the transition of women from faculty positions to higher leadership positions (e. g., deans, provosts, or presidents) in academia.[86] To assess whether gender disparities might exist in the tenure and promotion process, the chapter examines three research questions:
• Are similar male and female faculty equally likely to receive tenure?
• Are similar male and female faculty equally likely to receive a promotion?
• Do male and female faculty spend equal amounts of time in professorial ranks?
Tenure and promotion decisions are designed to be based on merit. Although there may be some subjectivity in the determination of merit, the committee wished to compare rates of tenure and promotion for men and women who were similar along as many dimensions, such as experience and productivity, as could be observed. Assuming (1) men and women have similar talent, (2) are given similar amounts of time to demonstrate their teaching excellence, research potential, and commitment to service, and (3) are held to the same standard, then men and women should achieve similar tenure and promotion results. Different results would occur if one or more of these assumptions are false.
This chapter draws on evidence from the study’s surveys of research-intensive (Research I or RI) institution departments in the sciences and engineering,[87] which the committee compared with data from other national surveys (primarily the National Science Foundation’s Survey of Doctorate Recipients [SDR] or the National Survey of Postsecondary Faculty [NSOPF] of the National Center for Education Statistics at the U. S. Department of Education), as well as information drawn from gender equity studies carried out by individual institutions.
An important limitation of most analyses of tenure and promotion decisions is that they examine selected samples of those who succeeded in gaining tenure or promotion, and those who are eligible for these advances but have not yet been considered. Many studies examine the representation of women among tenured versus untenured faculty or among full versus associate professors. Generally, there are no data on the decision-making process itself.[88] One methodological approach is to make the argument that one would expect faculty who are 10 years beyond being hired as assistant professors to be tenured. It is then possible to compare the percentage of men and women who have in fact received tenure. This comparison, however, omits the faculty who left prior to being considered for tenure (possibly because they had been informed that they were unlikely to receive it), as well as those who were considered, but not awarded tenure. A second approach is to examine time spent in the assistant professor rank by those who were promoted to associate professor and time spent as associate professor by those who were promoted to full professor.
Longitudinal data tracking individual academic career trajectories from first hire through tenure or departure are generally lacking, even in university-specific analyses. This is an important gap that can be readily remedied through the efforts of institutional researchers, with appropriate resources. This report’s analysis of departmental data does, however, allow a direct examination of the tenure and promotion decisions since we asked departments to report on every tenure and promotion case they considered in the prior 2 years, independent of the outcome of the case. This allows us to obtain data on both successful and unsuccessful tenure cases. However, it will not overcome any bias due to attrition prior to these milestones.
The chapter first describes the nature of tenure and promotion processes in RI institutions. Second, it describes the outcomes of tenure and promotion decisions. Finally, the chapter uses multivariate methods to examine how tenure and promotion for men and women are affected by university programs and policies, such as changes to the tenure clock.