Explaining hires made is more difficult, as the decision to hire involves the department, which makes the offer, and the applicant, who accepts. The committee’s departmental survey does not have information on characteristics of those ultimately hired, beyond their gender. However, the committee’s faculty survey did ask faculty some questions about reasons for accepting the position offered to them. Answers to these questions are explored in the next section of this chapter.
Table 3-7 presents data on the gender of the individual receiving the first offer and the gender of the faculty member ultimately hired for tenure-track positions.
In 95 percent of the cases in which a man was the first choice for a position, a man was ultimately hired in that position. Compare this to the case for women, where only 70 percent of cases in which a woman was first offered a position was a woman ultimately hired. In 30 percent of the cases in which women were offered first, a man ultimately ended up in the position.[53]
Table 3-8 presents data on the gender of the individual receiving the first offer and the gender of the faculty member ultimately hired for tenured positions.
In all cases in which a man was offered the position first, a man was ultimately hired. In only 77 percent of the cases in which a woman was offered the position first was a woman ultimately hired. In 23 percent of the cases in which a woman was offered the position first, a man was ultimately hired, again suggesting that if the woman who is first offered the position does not accept, there is a substantial chance the job will go to a man.
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TABLE 3-7 Percent of Candidates of Each Gender Who Received the First Offer and Gender of Candidates Who Eventually Accepted Each Tenure-Track Position
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NOTES: Number of cases is given in parentheses.
Table 3-7 is based on the subset of the positions used to construct Table 3-6 for which the gender of the person who accepted the position was known. We do not know from these data whether the person who accepted the position is the same person who received the first offer, even in those cases in which the gender is the same.
SOURCE: Survey of departments carried out by the Committee on Gender Differences in Careers of Science, Engineering, and Mathematics Faculty.
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TABLE 3-8 First Offer and Person Hired for Tenured Position, Percent by Gender
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NOTES: Number of cases is given in parentheses.
Table 3-8 is based on the subset of the positions used to construct Table 3-6 for which the gender of the person who accepted the position was known. We do not know from these data whether the person who accepted the position is the same person who received the first offer, even in those cases in which the gender is the same. Number of cases is given in parentheses.
SOURCE: Survey of departments carried out by the Committee on Gender Differences in Careers of Science, Engineering, and Mathematics Faculty.
We do not have information in our survey data to permit investigating this difference further. One plausible explanation is that many women who are offered positions are the only woman interviewed for that position. If the only woman interviewed is offered the position and turns it down (for whatever reason), that position will inevitably be filled by a man. In fact, only one woman was interviewed for 205 (38 percent) of the tenure-track and 23 (24 percent) of the tenured openings for which more than one person was interviewed. While there are many reasons why a person might turn down a job offer, in this particular instance, it is possible women, who are interviewed at disproportionally higher rates, also receive more offers than men and have to turn some of them down.