Deficit of Women Professors

taken from the October 2003 AAUP AZ Advocate

by Carol Bernstein, President

Amer. Assoc. Univ. Prof., AZ Conference

Nationally, as well as at Arizona public universities, women faculty members earn less, at the same rank, than men who are faculty members. However, perhaps an equally important deficit for women faculty members is diminished promotion to Professor.

Nationally, women Professors at category I (doctoral) institutions earned an average of $90,502, while men Professors in those institutions earned $99,502, in academic year 2002-03. At the main campus of ASU in 2002-03, overall salaries for women Professors was $80,200, and for men it was $92,900. Similarly, at the UA women Professors in 2002-03 earned $83,900 and men Professors earned $92,200; at NAU the numbers were $66,100 for women and $70,400 for men.

As shown in Table 2, in 2002-03, the peer institutions of the ASU main campus, NAU and the UA had women as a percentage of total Professor faculty ranging from 9% at the Texas A&M main campus to 29% at California State University at Fresno. ASU main campus, NAU and the UA had women as a percentage of Professors at a rate of 20%, 21% and 19% respectively. These statistics are from the American Association of University Professors annual report on the status of the profession, 2002-03. The striking deficit of women at the rank of Professor in Arizona universities is similar to that of our peers (Table 2).

Part of this deficit in women as Professors is due to historical patterns of fewer women being hired "in the pipeline." During the 1982-83 academic year, the ASU main campus, NAU and the UA had 35%, 25% and 34%, respectively, of women at the rank of Assistant Professor (Table 2). In 2002-03 (today) the percentage of women Professors at the ASU main campus, NAU and the UA is only 20%, 21% and 19%, respectively. The attrition is even more dramatic if the percentage of women Assistant Professors 10 years ago is compared to the percentage of women Professors today. Thus, the "pipeline" does not appear to be the only explanation for the lack of women in the Professor ranks.

It is likely that level of support for the childcare and family care roles of women in academe is a factor in ability of women to be promoted to Professor. Failing to make use of the talents of women, due to lack of gender-role support, promotion, or salary equity (and therefore lack of women at the Professor rank), can only be detrimental to carrying out the missions of the universities.

% Women at Rank

Prof

Asst

02-03

92-93

82-83

ASU and Peers

Temple U

U Ill (Chicago)

U Washington

U Cincinnati

ASU

UCLA

U Conn (Storrs)

Rutgers (New Brun)

Florida State

U Maryland/Coll Pk

U Kansas

Ohio State (Main)

U Colo (Boulder)

U Texas (Austin)

U Nebraska (Linc)

U Oklahoma

NAU and Peers

Calif State Fresno

U Delaware

Ohio U/Athens

U N. Dakota/main

George Mason

Miami U (Ohio)

NAU

U Minnesota/Duluth

U Montana

Oakland U

Bowling Green

U Vermont

Ball state

U Nevada/Reno

U Nev. Las Vegas

U Central Florida

U Wyoming

Old Dominion

UA and Peers

U N. Carolina CH

U Wisconsin/Mad

U Washington

U Missouri/Columb

UC Berkeley

Univ Minn/Twin Cit

Michigan State

U Michigan/Ann Arb

U Iowa

U Utah

Ohio State main

U Virginia

U Ill Urbana

U Florida

Texas A&M main