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Women in Academe: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
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I. Executive Summary
Status of Women in Academia
Times have changed for women in psychology. Or have they? Women earned approximately two-thirds of the 1997 doctorates in psychology and today make up about 4 out of 10 of the full-time psychology faculty in 4-year institutions. Clearly women in psychology have made it above the bottom rung of the academic ladder. But how far have they really progressed? The Task Force on Women in Academe was established by the American Psychological Association (APA) to delineate and evaluate issues associated with recruitment, retention, and progress of women psychologists throughout their careers in academe. Highlights of task force findings are as follows:
Women are participating in psychology at dramatically higher rates. Women received 23% of U.S. doctorates from 1920 to 1974, 33% in 1976, 51% in 1986, and 66% in 1996.
Women now make up 39% of the full-time psychology faculty in 4-year institutions and 49% of new hires. Yet women are substantially less likely to have tenure: 30% of women faculty are tenured, compared with 52% of men.
Nonsupportive institutional climate continues to be a critical issue, both at the departmental and at college/university levels.
Overt sexism has been replaced by more subtle sexism. Stereotyping processes may influencethe evaluation of women as leaders, researchers, and teachers.
Women have excelled as teachers of psychology, as evidenced by national awards and local evaluations. At the same time, some women experience bias in the evaluation of their teaching or lack of support for teaching.
Women are making substantial contributions to psychological research, as evidenced by authorship of articles in APA journals, editorships of APA journals, securing of federal grant funds, APA awards for Early Career Contributions, and APA awards for Distinguished Scientific Contributions. However, continuing obstacles to women as researchers include inequitable start-up packages for newly hired faculty and bias in evaluating certain types of research, for example, research on gender, race/ethnicity, and sexual orientation.
Women faculty, and especially women of color, tend to be overburdened with service obligations such as excessive advising or committee loads. At the same time, certain kinds of committee work can be an avenue into administrative roles -- such as department chair, dean, or provost -- that carry crucial decision-making responsibility, and women are underrepresented in these positions.
Underrepresentation of ethnic minorities continues to be a severe problem, and unless ethnic minority issues are addressed, full participation of women psychologists in academe cannot be achieved.
Recommendations in Brief
Recommendation 1: Climate
Each institution and department of psychology should examine its climate for women faculty. Is mentoring provided for all junior faculty? Do women faculty have research space adequate to meet their needs and equal to that of men? Are women and people of color represented sufficiently among the faculty and at all ranks? Is there a sexual harassment policy? Are family friendly policies in place, such as parental/family leave and on-site child care? Climate issues should be examined and addressed at all levels; some are departmental, while others are institution-wide.
Recommendation 2: Compensation
Departments and colleges/universities should examine compensation (defined broadly) for gender equity. Each institution should do a salary study, using multiple regression techniques, to determine whether there is a gender gap in total income and, if so, should correct it. Starting salaries should be checkedfor gender equity and, thereafter, monitored continuously. Women may be less willing to play the "outside offer" game; has a gender disparity emerged because of outside offers? Is summer salary allocated equitably?
Recommendation 3: Accountability
All administrators, especially department chairs and deans, must be held accountable for gender equity and climate in their units. Those who fail to make the corrections necessary for gender equity should be given feedback, and their effectiveness in correcting these problems should be reflected in compensation. If necessary, ineffective administrators should be replaced.
Recommendation 4: Teaching
Departments and colleges/universities should provide women faculty with equitable support for teaching. Is mentoring for teaching available? Is there equal access to teaching assistants? Is a reduced teaching load for new faculty available to allow them time to prepare new courses? Are teaching loads assigned equitably, in terms of number of preparations and choice of courses? Methods of teaching evaluation should be examined for gender fairness. As a principle of academic freedom, women faculty should be able to teach about women if they so choose, without penalty in their personnel evaluations.
Recommendation 5: Research
Departments and colleges/universities should provide women faculty with equitable support for their research, including start-up packages, lab space, funding for research assistants, equal access to internal funding for research, and protected time for research. As a principle of academic freedom, women faculty should be able to do research on women, gender, sexual orientation, or race/ethnicity without penalty in their personnel evaluations.
Recommendation 6: Service
Women should be recognized and rewarded for their service to the university and the profession. At the same time, departments and colleges should take measures to ensure that women -- and especially women of color -- are not unduly burdened by service obligations.
Recommendation 7: Training Materials
The American Psychological Association should develop training materials for departments of psychology, including material for chairs and faculty, that provide explicit and positive guidance in promoting a gender-equitable climate.
Recommendation 8: Ethnic Minority Issues
Institutions and departments of psychology should develop a comprehensive program to address underrepresentation of ethnic minorities that includes curriculum development, programs to enhance access to role models and mentors, scholarship and fellowship funding, and change in the institutional climate. Materials developed by APA’s Commission on Ethnic Minority Recruitment, Retention, and Training should continue to be widely disseminated, and the recommendations of its 5-year plan fully implemented.
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