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Study finds continuing gender discrimination in academia; provides possible solutions
A new study by researchers at the University of California, Irvine reveals a troubling picture of gender discrimination in academia.
Published in the June 2008 issue of the American Political Science Association's Perspectives on Politics, the qualitative study finds that female faculty, from non-tenure track professors through senior administrators, continue to contend with a culture that devalues the authority of women in high level positions and leaves little room for flexible work-family alternatives.
Findings are based on more than 80 in-depth interviews with UC Irvine female faculty, many of whom have worked in multiple universities throughout the United States and note that conditions at UCI typify those throughout American higher education.
It is the largest comprehensive study of its kind.
"Gender inequities and discrimination toward women in academia exist both at the individual and institutional level," says Kristen Monroe, UC Irvine political science and philosophy professor, director of the Interdisciplinary Center for the Scientific Study of Ethics and Morality, and author of the study. Co-authors include UC Irvine political science graduate students Saba Ozyurt, Ted Wrigley and Amy Alexander.
According to Monroe, most of the female faculty interviewed felt that while overt actions such as harassment are less prevalent, more subtle, less obvious inequities remain deeply entrenched within the institutional system itself.
"Interview responses indicate that while there have been significant increases in women in positions of authority, discrimination continues to manifest itself through gender devaluation, a subtle process where the status and power of an authority position is downplayed when that position is held by a woman," Monroe says.
Interviewees also expressed frustration with lower starting salaries and slower career advancements than their male counterparts. Statistical data, Monroe says, back their claims.
"While enrollment in graduate degree programs - the leading indicator of those likely to go on to tenure track positions - has, for the last 10 years, been more than 50 percent female, relevant hiring statistics do not reflect a comparable increase," she says. "Nationally, tenured professors in a university setting are four times more likely to be male than female."
The women interviewed attribute the persistence of gender inequality to a professional culture based on a traditional, linear male model that leaves little room for flexibility.
As for solutions, the researchers found women in academia rarely take legal or political action to remedy underlying discriminatory issues because they feel they will be labeled "trouble-makers." They instead find more subtle avenues through which to "equalize" the playing field by turning to less confrontational forms of collective action.
Mentoring programs and women's advocacy groups were also deemed by the interviewees as extremely helpful in bridging the equality gap.
Recommendations made by interviewees for alleviating gender inequities in academia include developing alternative career tracks to tenured positions, flexible time for family duties, rewarding service similarly to research in career advancement measures, and expanding university programs for spousal hiring and daycare.
"By drawing attention to these issues, issues which are not exclusive to UC Irvine but which are echoed nationwide by women in academia, our hope is that we may encourage change," Monroe says.
The study was funded in part by the National Science Foundation ADVANCE program which seeks to increase the representation and advancement of women in academia. UCI continued to financially support the study after its five-year funding period ended, a measure Monroe says was an "excellent response by the UCI university administration" and is "precisely the kind of positive reaction we hope enlightened administrators will take when faced with evidence of continuing gender inequality."
Additional information on UCI's ADVANCE program can be found at http://advance.uci.edu.
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