Background: The status of women in academia

1
Background The status of women in academia

• Percent of faculty who are women decreases with ?
  rank
• Few women in positions of leadership
• Little change in these numbers in last 2 decades,
  despite increase in women feeding into the
  system
• The MIT experience
• Women professors receive lower salaries, less lab
  space, and other resources
• Institutional admission of unintended gender
  discrimination, as well as implementing solutions
• Science 1999 286 1272-78

2
Gender Equity Projects at the University of
Arizona

• The Millennium Project (campus wide, commissioned
  by President Likins)
• Deans Committee on Women Faculty (College of
  Medicine with representatives from each
  department)
• Initiated the GRACE (Generating Respect for All
  in a Climate of academic Excellence) research
  project
• Objectives To investigate causes of, and
  implement solutions to, gender disparities in
  track assignment, promotion, salary, and
  leadership positions at the COM

3
Hypothesis driven research

• Institutional barriers
• Women are given equal credit for their
  achievements, and have equal access to resources.
• Promotion
• The proportion of women at higher ranks reflects
  the pool of available women.
• Women are less career oriented than men.
• Leadership
• Women lack the requisite skills and desire to
  lead.
• Discrimination
• Discrimination rarely occurs, and is effectively
  addressed.

4
GRACE project data sources

• Institutional data on rank and salary
• CVs for publication data (90)
• Survey data (48)
• On-line survey for COM/COPH faculty on
  leadership, resources, support, treatment,
  communication
• Qualitative data
• Open-ended interviews (n54) with random sample
  of women and men stratified by track, rank, type
  of department

5
Hypothesis 1 The distribution of rewards and
resources at the COM is gender blind

• Analyzed total salary (including bonus) for
  1999-2000
• Appointed Personnel Offices database
• Faculty (n413)
• Primary appointment in COM, located in Tucson
• ?50 FTE
• Tenure, clinical suffix, or research track

6
Analysis of salary data

• Data were log-transformed to remove effect of
  outliers
• Used Analysis of Variance to adjust for
• rank
• years at that rank
• track
• degree (MD, PhD)
• specialty (basic science, generalist,
  non-surgical specialty, surgical specialty)
• administrative responsibilities (section or
  division head, department or center head)

7
Additional adjustment for measures of productivity

• Total number of peer-reviewed publications (based
  on CVs)
• Clinical revenues (for clinical faculty data
  from UPI)

8
The facts (a)Adjusted mean salary, by gender,
and deficit for women
9
Adjusted mean salary (n), by gender and deficit
for women
10
Mean gender difference in adjusted salary, by
department
Basic Science Depts. Clinical Depts.





plt.10 plt.05
11
The facts (b) Credit and resources

• Women are less likely to feel that they are given
  appropriate credit for their work (1-6 scale, 6
  as always women - 4.2, men - 4.5 plt.06).
• Female full professors at the COM are
  significantly more likely than male full
  professors to share their research space (women -
  73, men - 40 plt.05).

12
Hypothesis 1 The reality

• Women at the COM are less likely to be rewarded
  for their work, in terms of salary, recognition,
  and research space.

13
Gender distribution by rank, UA COM
14
Gender distribution by track, UA COM
15
Number of males and females at each rank, by
track, UA COM
Research/Clinical
Tenure
Assistant
Assistant
16
Hypothesis 2 The distribution of women in the
COM reflects the pool of available women

• The facts
• The percent of women assistant professors being
  promoted to associate or full professors, in
  colleges of medicine, nationally, declines over
  time.

17
Facts Percent female and male faculty, by rank,
US, 1989 1999
1989
1999
18
Hypothesis 2 The reality

• The lack of women at higher ranks can not be
  explained solely by a pipeline effect.

19
Hypothesis 3 Women are less career-oriented,
due to family and other commitments

• The facts (a)
• There are no reported differences between women
  and men in
• The importance of career
• The desire to balance work and family life
• Delay of tenure clock (among tenure track
  faculty)
• Number of publications (after adjusting for rank,
  track, degree)

20
Despite the lack of gender differences in
productivity or reported commitment

• The facts (b)
• Mean years to promotion to associate professor
  greater for women than men (6.5 vs. 5.2, plt.01).
• This difference is borderline significant when
  adjusted for track, publications (6.0 vs.5.2
  years for men, plt.09).
• Women on the tenure track more likely to have
  considered changing tracks (46 vs. 9, plt.00001).

21
Hypothesis 3 The reality

• Whatever their other commitments, women and men
  at the COM are equally productive and equally
  committed to their careers.
• Despite these similarities, significantly fewer
  women are full professors.

22
Leadership at COM (1999-2000)

• Men Women
• Department heads (n19) 100 0
• Section heads (n36) 89 11

23
Hypothesis 4 Women dont have the right stuff
to be leaders

• The facts (a)
• There were no gender differences in
• aspiring to lead (61 vs 57 of men)
• self-assessment as having leadership qualities
  (91 vs. 94)
• being somewhat or very willing to take on time
  consuming tasks (73 vs. 79)
• feeling undermined in a leadership role (42 vs.
  44)

24
The facts (b) Women were less likely to

• Be asked to serve
• as committee chair (48 vs. 68, plt.001)
• as section head (12 vs. 45 , plt.001)
• as department head (6 vs. 25, plt.001)
• Be involved in
• decisions over promotion
• decisions over non-grant supported space
• Feel they have influence in the department

25
Hypothesis 4 The reality

• Women in the COM are willing and able to lead
  but their leadership abilities are not
  recognized, and they are not asked to lead.

26
Hypothesis 5 There are no gender differences in
treatment at the COM

• The facts
• Women felt their department treated faculty
  differently based on gender at least some of the
  time (54 vs. 21, plt.00001).
• Women were significantly more likely to report
  they had been discriminated against (32 vs. 5,
  plt.00001).
• Only 7 of the women citing discrimination sought
  recourse.
• Most women stated that the COM does not respond
  appropriately to charges of discrimination (68
  vs. 15, plt.00001).
• Women were less likely to feel they fit in (72
  vs 85, plt.03).

27
Summary (I) Gender differences in at the
College of Medicine

• The dearth of women at higher ranks is not due to
  a pipeline problem, or to differences in
  commitment or productivity.
• Women are less likely than men to be recognized
  or rewarded, with research space or salary, for
  their accomplishments.

28
Summary (II) Gender differences in at the
College of Medicine

• Women are interested in, and capable of, taking
  on leadership positions, but are rarely given the
  opportunity.
• Most women faculty in the COM feel their
  departments treat men and women differently.
• Discrimination against female faculty is common,
  and few faculty feel the COM adequately addresses
  discrimination.

29
The next steps Identifying and implementing
solutions

• Overall goal Create a culture that attracts and
  retains the most talented women faculty.
• Continue discussions with Faculty, Department
  Heads, and administration about possible
  solutions.
• Literature review of solutions used elsewhere and
  in other disciplines
• Propose solutions in September, 2001,
  simultaneously with the Millennium Project

30
Examples of possible solutions

• Continue to monitor status of women in the COM
• Measure (and reward) improvements in each
  Department for
• increasing proportion of women promoted, on
  tenure track
• successfully recruiting and retaining women
  faculty
• eliminating salary differentials
• appointing qualified women to leadership
  positions
• Creation of an advisory committee on womens
  status to review progress, and to advise on
  appropriate solutions
• Develop innovative programs that will attract
  funding

31
GRACE Project web address

• http//www.medicine.arizona.edu/grace.html
• Survey results
• Activities
• Contact information
• References

32
Gender differences in salary by rank and
department type

• Clinical Science Basic Science
• Rank Departments Departments
• Assistant - 9,648
  5,181
• Associate - 11,599 -
  8,250
• Full Professors - 34,133 - 23,976
• P value lt.05, lt.001

33
Lifetime salary differential if receive average
female salary

• If 6 years as assistant professor,
• If 6 years as associate professor,
• If 13 years as full professor,
• Lifetime difference in income due to gender
• Clinical departments Basic science departments
• 571,211 330,102

34
Salary data log-transformed to reduce effect of
outliers
Log Salary
Salary
Number of Individuals