Public universities are often thought to do more to foster diversity than private institutions. This is because these institutions have more state oversight and may be more transparent. Insofar as this is widely believed, women may be more likely to apply for positions at public than at private research universities. GEOGRAPHIC MOBILITY Marital and family […]

It may be more difficult to balance family and career at a Research I institu­tion (Sears, 2003), which may discourage women from applying for RI positions. Marital status and the presence of children are often mentioned as critical to assessing gender differences. Institutions with spousal support policies and child-care and family leave policies might be […]

Female applicants may also take the presence of women on the search com­mittee as a sign of a more female-friendly environment. At meetings of profes­sional societies and as a focal point of hiring efforts, the search committees may be very visible, and having a female search committee chair may lead to greater efforts to recruit […]

The committee hypothesized having a larger proportion of women in a department might be taken by female potential applicants as a signal of a “woman — friendly” department. Thus, the percentage of women applicants would be expected to be positively correlated with the percentage of women already on the faculty. However, prior research indicated this […]

One of the reasons women might not apply to RI institutions is there is a perception that these schools have a reputation for not being female-friendly. Female students may experience a chilly climate in graduate school or may per­ceive that some female faculty find obstacles when pursuing their careers and, as a consequence, may opt […]

The potential applicant pool consists of those individuals who could apply for one or more positions. In practice, universities know only the number of appli­cants who apply for any particular position for which they are recruiting, and the actual potential candidate pool remains unknown. Typically, the number of women receiving Ph. D.s in a field […]

A review of previous research at the time the surveys were conducted showed that the proportion of female science and engineering (S&E) faculty at Research I (RI) institutions was rising but had yet to reach parity in reference to the propor­tion of S&E doctorates awarded to women. From 1979 to 2003, the percentage of female […]

This appendix examines prior research on the factors hypothesized to be associated with the proportion of female applicants for faculty positions. The focus is on departmental or institutional characteristics since this study’s survey data contain little information about the individual applicants, apart from their gender. A review of previous research included topics on departmental climate, […]

Previous research on the role of institutions in gender differences among their faculty consisted of two different approaches. One approach focused on structural differences among institutions, arguing that such variables as the type of institution, whether it was a public or private institution, its prestige, whether it was unionized, and even its geographic region could […]

Marital status and the presence of children were often mentioned as critical to assessing gender differences.[117] Rosser (2003) surveyed women who received an NSF POWRE award between 1997 and 2000. She found that “overwhelming numbers of survey respondents found ‘balancing work with family’ to be the most significant challenge facing women scientists and engineers. Interestingly, […]