Climbing the Academic Ladder Doctoral Women Scientists in Academe: A Report to the Office of Science and Technology Policy (1979) / Chapter Skim
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ACADEMIC EMPLOYMENT
ACADEMIC EMPLOYMENT
Pages 57-98
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From page 57... ...
Because the proportions of women faculty vary widely among fields and their numbers are extremely small in some disciplines, any generalized analysis is of dubious utility. Set against the backdrop of a nearly steady-state academic economy and a sharply declining one in some fields, even a slight relative improvement in the status of women on science faculties can be regarded as a very welcome sign of progress.
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From page 58... ...
Doctoral Scientists and Engineers by Employment Sector and Sex, 1977 Total 267,206 Wen 242,913 Women 24,293 Number Employed Educational Institutions 56.22 55.1 67.4% 4-Year Colleges/Univ. 53.9 53.2 61.3 2-Year Colleges 1.6 1.4 3.5 Elem/Secnd Schools 0.6 0.5 2.5 Business & Industry 26.4 27.9 11.6 Federal Government 8.4 8.8 4.9 Other Government 1.9 1.8 3.2 Hospitals & Clinics 2.9 2.5 7.3 Nonprofit Organizations 2.9 2.8 4.0 Other Employers 0.8 0.7 1.0 Employer Not Reported 0.5 0.4 0.7 *
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From page 59... ...
The statistics in this table are weighted estimates, derived from a sample survey of 65,000 Ph.D.'s in science and engineering. The estimates are subject to two types of error, sampling and non-sampling, (e.g., nonresponse bias)
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From page 60... ...
The statistics in this table are weighted estimates, derived from a sample survey of 65,000 Ph.D's in science and engineering. The estimates are subject to two types of error -- sampling and non-sampling, (e.g., non-response bias)
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From page 61... ...
wmm 1 10 -- ^i rl n$_ 1 40 -- Other Institutions 30 20 10 n | | Men E%fl Women W//////MW////M -- -- ] Professor Associate Assistant Instructor/ Other/ Postdoctoral Professor Professor Lecturer No Report 'See Appendix B-1 for a description of the ranking of institutions by federal R&D expenditures.
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From page 62... ...
were described as nonrenewable term, one- or two-year term with one possible renewal, or non-tenure track, with the remainder not clearly categorized but suggestive of imperraanence with such descriptions as "continuation contingent on funding." Announcements came from both departments and affirmative action offices, were also widely advertised in professional publications and are believed to constitute a valid national sample. Associate professor rank may or may not carry tenure; typically only about three fourths of such appointments do.
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From page 63... ...
Overall, in 1977 the picture was one of higher proportions of women senior faculty at the "other" institutions, with some gains, however, being made at the first 50. In the sciences as a group, there has been moderate growth with total faculty positions (assistant professor rank and above)
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From page 64... ...
Note: Estimated sampling errors associated with the percent statistics are shown in parentheses. Source: Survey of Doctorate Recipients, National Research Council.
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From page 65... ...
Source: Survey of Doctorate Recipients, National Research Council. The statistics in this table are weighted estimates derived from a sample survey of 65,000 Ph.
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From page 66... ...
Note: Estimated sampling errors associated with the percent statistics are shown in parentheses. Source: Survey of Doctorate Recipients, National Research Council.
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From page 67... ...
* Fields included are mathematics, computer sciences, physics/astronomy, chemistry, earth sciences, engineering, agricultural sciences, medical sciences, biological sciences, psychology, anc• social sciences.
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From page 68... ...
* The apparent decrease in mathematics faculty may be in part due to a redefinition of departments, separating applied mathematics, statistics, or computer sciences from pure mathematics.
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From page 69... ...
In the remaining institutions (the great majority of colleges and universities) the number of women in EMP fields has increased by more than one-third, but, again, because the total is small compared to male faculty, their proportion of all faculty positions remains low.
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From page 70... ...
Growth 34,740 30,008 4,732 +15.8% 1,642 1,192 450 +37.8% 4.7 4.0 * Faculty includes full professors, associate professors, and assistant professors at two-year and four-year colleges, universities, and medical schools.
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From page 71... ...
6/78 projections from 1976 Affirmative Action Plan Source: Harvard Gazette, September 29, 1978.
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From page 72... ...
In all of these fields, involving much larger total numbers of faculty, women have made strong gains. Even in medical sciences in the top institutional category and in biosciences in both upper groups, where substantial cuts were made in total faculty between 1973 and 1977, appointments of women increased significantly.
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From page 73... ...
1977 28,521 3,399 11.9 1973 22,200 2,173 9.8 4-Yr Growth 6,321 1,226 % 28.5% 56.4% * Faculty includes full-professors,.associate.professors, and assistant professors at two-year and four-year colleges, universities, and medical schools.
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From page 74... ...
1977 29,993 4,881 16.3 1973 22,303 2,795 12.5 4-Yr Growth 7,690 2,086 % 34.5% 74.6% * Faculty includes full professors, associate professors, and assistant professors at two-year and four-year colleges, universities, and medical schools.
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From page 75... ...
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From page 76... ...
Off-Ladder Positions As a general rule, departments hire professional staff in variously designated positions which are outside the tenure stream. Such positions may be a holding pattern for people they would like to keep until a more promising appointment becomes available.
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From page 77... ...
Source: Survey of Doctorate ecipients, National Research Council. TABLE 4.13 Number and Percent of Doctoral Scientists and Engineers in Academe*
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From page 78... ...
Source: Survey of Doctorate Recipients, National Research Council. The statistics in this table are weighted estimates, derived from a sample survey of 65,000 Ph.D.'s in science and engineering.
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From page 79... ...
A great many charges have been levelled at academic institutions in the past few years concerning their readiness to give women "revolving-door" appointments -- short-term assistant professorships with no prospects of consideration for tenure and therefore none of the security necessary to become established and to initiate and carry out research. Reports of studies in progress at several major research universities have indicated internal concern that the rates of promotion to tenure for female junior faculty are well below those for men.» Simple counting of positions by rank and sex (Table 4.15)
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From page 80... ...
Still, at the associate professor level they are advancing in proportions comparable to their presence as assistant professors. These data tell us little that might resolve the "revolving door" or flow-through problem.
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From page 81... ...
Source: Survey of Doctorate Recipients, National Research Council. The statistics in this table are weighted estimates derived from a sample survey of 65,000 Ph.D's in science and engineering.
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From page 82... ...
The exceptions are the social sciences and those fields containing very few women -- physics/astronomy, earth sciences, agricultural and medical sciences -- for which there are also substantial fluctuations from year to year and cohort to cohort because of the small numbers of women. In the biological sciences, the overall difference remains but appears to be diminishing for the most recent cohorts.
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From page 83... ...
Figure 4.2 Percent of Doctoral Science and Engineering Faculty Holding Tenured Positions, by Rank and Sex, 1977 100 80 I 60 CU u (U 40 20 b^•v^ Men I I Women Professor Associate Professor Assistant Professor 83
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From page 84... ...
1,555 82.7 12 1,616 81.1 12 100.0 100.0 Medical Sciences 800 63.7 133 55.0 1,162 67.6 200 65.1 Bio. Sciences 4,737 80.1 528 72.9 5,218 80.9 612 65.9 Psychology 2,274 70.8 422 65.8 2,508 77.6 485 70.6 Social Sciences 4,432 74.7 594 73.3 5,888 82.6 844 79.4 Percent is based on the number who reported tenure status.
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From page 85... ...
0 84.9 75.3 61.0 Earth Sciences 85 100.0 -- 831 72.3 23 100.0 160 53.9 -- Engineering 227 100.0 -- 2,444 86.5 -- 317 51.5 -- Agricultural Sci. 224 100.0 __1,046 84.9 12 100.0 285 67.1 -- Medical Sciences 115 31 51.7 510 67.9 70 68.6 156 49.8 32 52.5 77.7 Bio.
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From page 86... ...
167 100.0 7 100.0 1,568 90.7 24 60.0 391 ___ 74.9 Chemistry 205 100.0 30 1,822 90.7 119 76.8 379 76.0 20 100.0 54.1 Earth Sciences 38 -- 731 84.7 18 100.0 356 68.1 -- 100.0 Engineering 128 -- 2,229 88.8 779 63.9 100.0 ___ -- Agricultural Sci. 191 882 83.6 12 100.0 543 72.7 100.0 -- Medical Sciences 112 68.3 38 100.0 648 66.7 71 353 66.2 57 52.3 68.9 Bio.
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From page 87... ...
Productivity measures using citation counts must therefore be evaluated with caution. Studies comparing the productivity of men and women faculty have yielded ambiguous and sometimes contradictory results.
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From page 88... ...
used multivariate regression analysis with over 25 predictor variables to investigate the extent to which male/female differences could be explained by relatively objective factors, such as highest degree earned, differences in performance, etc. The study found that women were typically paid about $1500 less than the predicted salary for a man with the same attributes (Darland et al., 1973)
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From page 89... ...
as in Table 4.20, we have almost no fields left for comparison in Research Universities I and II, as might be expected from rank distributions discussed earlier. Assistant professors' salaries should show the fastest response to change, and are the ones given here for the 1970-1974 and 1975-1976 Ph.D.
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From page 90... ...
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From page 92... ...
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From page 93... ...
Source: Survey of Doctorate Recipients, National Research Council. The statistics in this table are weighted estimates, derived from a sample survey of 65,000 Ph.D's in science and engineering.
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From page 94... ...
The gains in total numbers of new academic positions for women scientists, and especially the gains in tenured positions, are modest, and indeed almost invisible when viewed as a fraction of the total of approximately 120,000 faculty positions. But in the top research universities, with a steady or declining population, there have been some quite real increases, and that fact has importance beyond the magnitude of the numbers.
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From page 96... ...
Their rate of promotion to associate professorships corresponds roughly to the average proportion of women among assistant professors over the four-year period, while in the research universities that rate is very much higher. The lag in the granting of tenure to women, however, has persisted throughout the period under examination.
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From page 97... ...
What of affirmative action policies? There is no doubt, in our judgment, that the existence of equal opportunity laws, regardless of their actual enforcement, is primarily responsible for the relative increase in the numbers of women faculty and also for the relative improvement in salaries, at least at the entry level.
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From page 98... ...
Private communication. Higher Education Resource Services.
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