Why aren?t there more women serving as APA journal editors?

By Rebecca A. Clay

For Ursula Delworth, PhD, editing the APA journal Professional Psychology represented a way of achieving a lifelong dream.

Intent on enhancing the role of women and ethnic minorities in psychology, she set out in 1983 with a deliberate plan for becoming the journal?s editor. She published in it, reviewed manuscripts for it and eventually joined its editorial board. When she finally became the journal?s first woman editor in 1988, she got her chance to help shape the literature of her field, something that will continue to have considerable impact on future generations.

'I was very lucky to have the opportunity to move my agenda of inclusion forward,' says Delworth, a professor and the departmental executive officer of the psychological and quantitative foundations division in the College of Education at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. 'I am one of the people who has felt the door open in the last 15 years. I tried to pass that on by involving women and persons of color on my editorial board.'

Examples like Delworth?s are what APA?s Committee on Women in Psychology (CWP) wants to see more of. Disturbed by the low number of women and ethnic minorities serving as editors of APA and divisional journals, the committee is working to increase diversity in these critical gatekeeping positions. And the committee is trying to find out what?s keeping more women and ethnic minorities from getting involved in the editorial process.

Researching barriers

Despite concerted efforts over the last decade and a half, APA?s Publications and Communications (P&C) Board, which selects journal editors, and editors who appoint people to the journal editorial boards have had a hard time attracting women and ethnic minority individuals. In fact, it was the discovery that only 14 percent of APA journal editors were women and that none were ethnic minorities that helped prompt CWP to form a working group on journal editors in 1995.

The group?s first major project was to survey past and present editors to learn more about possible barriers that might be keeping underrepresented groups from participating in journal editing. The working group is still analyzing its data, but has reached some preliminary conclusions.

The survey revealed some good news. Although the number of women serving as APA or divisional journal editors is still small, for example, the proportion of women has grown from 19 percent in the 1970s to 32 percent in the 1990s. This may suggest that women are starting to overcome barriers in academia and other settings, says working group member Jan L. Culbertson, PhD, who is working with past CWP chair Martha E. Banks, PhD, to analyze the 1996 survey results.

The survey also found that female respondents received as much or even more support than their male counterparts. For example, 60 percent of the women received stipends for associate editors compared with just 36 percent of the men. Male and female respondents got approximately the same amount of honoraria. And about two-thirds of respondents felt there weren?t any obstacles specific to women and ethnic minorities.

'Lack of time was the biggest obstacle and was universally reported,' says Culbertson. 'It didn?t matter if you were male or female.'

A past editor of the Div. 12 journal Clinical Child Psychology, Culbertson is professor of pediatrics and director of neuropsy-chology services at the Child Study Center at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City.

The fact that the survey reached only people who had actually served as editors may have something to do with their perception that women and ethnic minorities face no special barriers, says Gwendolyn Puryear Keita, PhD, director of APA?s Women?s Programs Office.

'The journal editors we talked to were mainly men,' says Keita, whose office provides staff support to CWP. 'If you looked at people who may have been offered the job and turned it down, you would probably have a better idea of what the obstacles were.'

Identifying those obstacles?or perceived obstacles?is the working group?s next project. The group hopes its new survey will reach potential applicants who are leery of becoming editors as well as people who have been offered editorships but turned them down. (See below.) The survey may shed more light on what?s keeping the number of women and ethnic-minority applicants so low, says Keita.

Nora S. Newcombe, PhD, editor of APA?s Journal of Experimental Psychology, has some ideas about why more women aren?t serving as editors.

'Given the existing gender roles in our society, being an editor is a lot harder for women than for men,' says Newcombe, a psychology professor at Temple University in Philadelphia. 'Women typically have a double shift and therefore have greater time pressures than men do.'

The timing of the editorial process also adds to the pressure, says Newcombe. Many people spend the summer working on manuscripts, then send them in en masse in the fall. Because papers generally come to fruition three months after submission, the result is a huge pile of letters to write in November, just when she?s finishing up her semester, grading papers and getting her family ready for the holidays. Already stretched thin by balancing work and family, women editors can be overwhelmed during this hectic period, she says.

'Sometimes I worry that my own career would be progressing quicker if I weren?t an editor,' she admits. 'I still question whether I?ve done the right thing by being an editor.'

Getting involved

To assuage fears like Newcombe?s, Delworth suggests saving the role of editor for later in one?s career. Already well-established when she assumed her own editorship, Delworth says being editor nonetheless helped win her awards, made her better known and taught her administrative skills that made her an attractive candidate for associate dean and departmental chair positions.

She and others who have been editors have plenty of other advice to offer women and ethnic minorities interested in editing:

? Decide to pursue an editorship only if you accept that the job?s time-consuming nature will mean you may need to forgo other professional opportunities.

? Start publishing in the journals you like to read.

? Ask to be an ad hoc reviewer and do a good job so you?ll be moved up to the editorial board.

? Read broadly to give yourself a perspective beyond your particular area of interest.

? Polish your editing skills by attending workshops and asking for feedback.

? Let people know you?re interested in being an editor.

? Edit a small journal to make sure you really like editing.

? Apply for several editorships so that search committees and APA?s P&C Board get to know you and realize you?re serious about your desire to be an editor.

Most importantly, says Delworth, keep in mind that being an editor is important for you and your field.

'Being an editor has got to be a good thing or why else would so many white men be eager to do it?' she says. 'If it weren?t worth doing, you wouldn?t have all this competition.'

Rebecca A. Clay is a writer in Washington, D.C.