Emerging Gender Parity and Persistent Differences: Cultural Shifts among Faculty Cohorts at a Primarily Undergraduate Institution
Abstract
Purpose
Although there are more primarily undergraduate institutions (PUIs) than research-oriented institutions (ROIs) in the United States and more professors work at PUIs than ROIs, most research on gender inequality among faculty has focused on ROIs. Do patterns of women’s numeric scarcity, gender-hostile work climates, and difficulties with work-life balance found at ROIs hold true for PUIs? This chapter examines one PUI to address this question.
Methods
We analyze data from four sources: an archival database of all professors at the institution, interviews with full and associate professors, and two surveys.
Findings
Similar to ROIs, our study found women were less likely to achieve higher ranks, and take longer than men to do so. However, we find greater numbers of women and few gender differences in perception of climate, so numeric scarcity and gender-hostile climate cannot explain persistent lags in women’s advancement. Instead, we find women struggle with work-life balance more than men, especially in science disciplines. Thus, gender parity in advancement has yet to fully emerge, despite more women in the faculty and a more equitable climate than at ROIs.
Research implications
Differences between faculty cohorts are intensified at the PUI because of changes to the institution’s mission, but our research demonstrates that not all gendered patterns found at ROIs apply to PUIs.
Practical and social implications
PUIs that increasingly emphasize scholarly output should enact family-friendly policies to support all professors, including on-campus or subsidized childcare, flexible scheduling, family leave, and dual-career hiring policies.
Originality/value
This chapter demonstrates that there are important differences between ROIs and PUIs that must be taken into account if we are to understand and remedy gender inequality in academia.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgments
This research was funded by the National Science Foundation ADVANCE Program (PAID Award # 0930193) and was supported by the Office of Academic Affairs and the School of Humanities and Social Science at The College of New Jersey. The authors wish to thank the many professors who shared information about their lives in response to our research inquiries. We appreciate the feedback we received from Laura Kramer and anonymous reviewers. We are also grateful to the undergraduates who helped with this project, including Jenna Benjamin, Jaclyn Bennett, Marjorie Blicharz, Lyndsey Coligan, Amanda D. Emmert, Jason Hammer, Kyle Hogan, Stephanie Holcomb, Lauren Kaplan, Louis Klein, Linda Lopez, Nicole Matyas, Christian Mercado, Casey Olesko, Hana Paster, Kathryn Ratcliffe, Leah Ruediger, Kaitlyn Ryan, and Stephanie Torres. We thank members of the TCNJ Advancement Project team, including Carol Bresnahan, Karen Clark, Lisa Grega, Jeff Osborn, Amanda Norvell, Rita Patel-Eng, Miriam Segura-Totten, Suriza van der Sandt, Shaun Wiley, and Karen Yan.
Citation
Borland, E. and Bates, D.C. (2014), "Emerging Gender Parity and Persistent Differences: Cultural Shifts among Faculty Cohorts at a Primarily Undergraduate Institution", Gender Transformation in the Academy (Advances in Gender Research, Vol. 19), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 109-129. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1529-212620140000019005
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2014 Emerald Group Publishing Limited