In addition to the underrepresentation of female faculty, concerns persisted regarding gender differences in the treatment of faculty. Several studies suggested women were evaluated more harshly and were less likely to be hired into academic positions (Lewin and Duchan, 1971; Steinpreis et al., 1999; Trix and Psenka, 2003; Wenneras and Wold, 1997). The literature also suggested that once hired, women were treated differently than men. Women were less likely to receive tenure or a promotion—the major career milestones for academics—or they spent more time in a lower rank before tenure or a promotion, with negative consequences for their salaries (Long et al., 1993; NRC, 2001; NSF, 2004a). Ginther (2001) found women scientists, in general, were 12 percent less likely than men to be promoted. Long et al. (1993) reached a similar conclusion for women in biochemistry.[37]
Some writers suggested that female faculty received fewer resources than male faculty, with academic salaries being an obvious, much studied, example. Data from the Department of Education revealed that during the 2003 to 2004 academic year, male “faculty with 9/10-month contracts earned an average salary of $68,000, and female faculty with contracts of the same length earned an average salary of $55,000” (Knapp et al., 2005). According to an AAUP survey, women’s salaries for the academic year 2003 to 2004 continued to remain lower than men’s salaries in every category (Curtis, 2005).[38] Curtis explained that women were “still disproportionately found in lower-ranked faculty positions, including non-tenure — track lecturer or unranked positions, which tend to pay lower salaries,” and women were “more likely than men to be employed at associate degree and baccalaureate colleges, where salaries are lower” (p. 29). However, studies of salaries of science and engineering faculty, which controlled for such factors as career age, discipline, institution type, rank, and productivity still found disparities in salary (Ginther, 2001, 2004; NRC, 2001b). There was some evidence that the gender gap in academic salaries was shrinking over time (see, for instance, Holden, 2004).
Other resources may not have been equitably held. The 1999 Massachusetts Institute of Technology study (MIT, 1999), for instance, noted women faculty had less laboratory space than men. University departments doled out a variety of resources, including access to research assistants, travel money, lab space and equipment, summer research money, etc.
A third area where inequities were seen to exist was in academic workloads (Fogg, 2003a; Jacobs, 2004; Nettles et al., 2000; Park, 1996). As Park (1996) explained, “Though all university faculty are expected to teach and to serve, as well as to carry out research, male and female faculty exhibit significantly different patterns of research, teaching, and service. Men, as a group, devote a higher portion of their time to research activities, whereas women, as a group, devote a much higher percentage of their time to teaching and service activities than do men” (p. 54). An examination of fall 2003 full-time S&E faculty at Research I institutions in the Department of Education’s 2004 NSOPF found that men and women spent, on average, 35.8 percent and 30.3 percent of their time on research activities, respectively. Conversely, women and men spent 46.9 and 41.3 percent of their time on instruction, respectively.[39] Men and women spent almost the same percentage of time on administrative and other activities.[40] Disparities in research time may have had critical consequences, as productivity is the most important component in deciding tenure and promotion cases[41] and in determining salary.
A final area where disparities may have occurred between female and male faculty was in job satisfaction and retention. In general, women were less satisfied in the academic workplace than males (Trower and Chait, 2002), which may have led to unhappiness with one’s profession and consequently lower productivity and decreased retention rates. Lawler (1999) noted an additional concern: “unhappiness gets transmitted to younger women starting out and may help scare a new generation away from academia,” thus potentially reducing the pool of future academics.
Several studies found women had higher attrition rates than men both prior to and after tenure was granted (August, 2006; August and Waltman, 2004; Carter et al., 2003; Trower and Chait, 2002).[42] Yamagata (2002), for example, found that the attrition rate for female faculty at medical schools was higher than the rate for male faculty from 1980 to 1999 (although the attrition rate for women was decreasing faster than the attrition rate for men and more women were becoming full-time faculty members, resulting in a shrinking gender gap). Johnsrud and Rosser (2002) catalogued a variety of reasons that may explain a faculty member’s decision to leave a particular position. These included a variety of individual characteristics, such as personal motivation and satisfaction, as well as institutional support.[43]
Against this backdrop of increasing women’s participation in science and engineering but persistent gender gaps, the committee fielded its surveys of faculty and academic departments in 2004 and 2005. Many of the issues and concerns raised by previous data collection and research formed the basis for the survey questions. Again, an analysis of historical trends from 1995 to 2003 and a more extensive review of the literature can be found in Appendix 2-2.