Our findings suggest that once women apply to a position at a research­intensive institution, the chances that they will be invited to an interview and be offered a position are disproportionately high for many of the disciplines we surveyed. Yet the proportion of women in faculty positions continues to be low despite increasing numbers of […]

Turning to the faculty survey, the committee asked faculty who were either tenure-track or tenured and had been hired after 1996 what were their “main con­siderations in deciding to work for their current institution.” Respondents could check up to 15 choices (the 15th and final choice was Other). For each selection, respondents could check yes […]

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 […]

The response variable of interest was binary: a woman was first offered the position or the position was offered to a man. We considered all the institutional and position-level variables described earlier, with the following modifications. Instead of the percentage of female applicants, we now included the percentage of women in the interview pool, and […]

The department typically decides who will receive an offer. Thus, the statisti­cal analysis of offers made focused on departmental and institutional variables. Most of the factors included in the applicant and interview models are also used here: discipline; departmental climate, as measured by female faculty, female faculty on the search committee and family-friendly policies; public […]

The final step in the search process is making a offer to one of the individuals interviewed. This section examines the percentage of offers made to women and the factors that may have an impact on this percentage. Table 3-5 presents data on whether the department’s search results in a first offer to a woman […]

The percentage of women in the interview pool appears to exceed the percent­age of female applicants in all areas. We now investigate whether the percentage of women in the interview pool is associated with the institutional, departmental, and position-level characteristics described earlier and with two additional predictors: the percentage of female applicants and an indicator […]

As with the analysis of applications, the analysis of interviews focused on departmental and institutional variables. Most of the factors in the applicant model are also used here: discipline; departmental climate, as measured by female fac­ulty; female faculty on the search committee and family-friendly policies; public versus private universities; and prestige. Much of the literature […]

Our survey data allowed us to examine the actual behavior of departments for the 545 tenure-track and 97 tenured openings for which we have gender data for applicants, interviewees, offers, and ultimate hires. Across all the positions— tenure-track or tenured—an average of four men and one woman were interviewed for any particular position. A cynical […]

This section examines the representation of women among candidates whom departments choose to interview. Prior to this survey, few data were available about the probability that a female applicant for an academic position will be interviewed as compared with the probability that a male applicant will be inter­viewed. There is, however, substantial literature suggesting that […]