Wanted: Female faculty

[Bill McBlueState]

(In case anyone has recently been led to believe that women somehow "dominate" higher education.)

From the (Toledo) Blade:

If a research project among half a dozen northern Ohio universities is successful, more women will attain higher-education faculty positions in science, technology, engineering, and math. They are woefully underrepresented in all, a loss not only to the academic disciplines but also to young women who might be drawn to less-conventional study with female professors as role models.

...

Karen Bjorkman, chairman of UT's physics and astronomy department, says rectifying the gender imbalance in the sciences is critical because "in this day of competition around the world in technical areas and proficiency in science, we can't afford to throw away over half of our talent pool." She's one of three women among 22 faculty members in the department.

For years, Deanne Snavely was the only female chemistry professor at BGSU. She has been chairman of the department. But in 20 years, she says, no other female faculty member was hired. Today, there is just one female tenured or tenure-track faculty member in the chemistry department, and none in physics and astronomy.

...

[Starry Messenger]

1. You mean the "mancession" might be an anti-feminist myth?

What a shocker. :sarcasm:

[lumberjack_jeff]

3. 78% of jobs lost in this recession have been men.

That's not a myth.

[Kalyke]

12. Because this recession was caused by the bursting of a HOUSING bubble.

Who primarily builds homes? Men. The fact that few people are in the position to purchase a home now means that existing homes are sitting, so new homes aren't being built at the same pace as they were two or three years ago.

There are far more men in construction, plumbing, electrical work, etc. than there are women. Granted, there are women in those fields.

http://www.womentechworld.org/bios/construction/articles/anything.htm

Although the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that women comprise about 10 percent of the construction work force today, Skidmore cautions that the number of skilled tradeswomen in construction is significantly lower.

"When you exclude secretaries, surveyors and the like, it's more like 2 to 3 percent,'' she said.

That's why this recession has seen a disproportionate number of male layoffs. It's not a gender biased thing - it's a "profession" thing.

[lumberjack_jeff]

16. Sooo.... it's okay? Or it is a myth?

What is your explanation of the root cause intended to dispute?

Unemployment is demonstrably biased by gender, whatever the root causes might be. That said, the fact that men are undereducated is a good place to start that analysis.

[lumberjack_jeff]

2. Why just physics, chemistry and astronomy college professors?

Women are "woefully underrepresented" in a http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-04-08/the-20-most-dangerous-jobs/">great many traditionally male fields.

[Bill McBlueState]

4. Not sure

You can probably have a look at the BGSU website if you're interested in numbers for other departments at that institution.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

5. Because it makes things look worse than they actually are

The techie fields have male majorities, both faculty and students.

[Lance_Boyle]

6. I wonder if male professors are underrepresented in the Women's Studies program? n/t

[redqueen]

8. WTF? "Women's studies" is not the opposite of the sciences.

Unbelievable.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

11. Of course they are,and one would expect the converse to be true in a mens studies program

[MellowDem]

7. Your post is faulty....

the link you provide to shows that women were dominating in graduating from higher education, not in the positions. Women already dominate in public education. And a lot of the reason they don't dominate yet at higher education is because those incredibly high graduation rates have as of yet to fully mature; ie the tons of women who have been graduating are not yet old enough to be professors, as that is something that usually happens later in life, especially tenured faculty.

Give it time, and the gap will be reduced. But there will always be gaps of some sort or other, I doubt society will ever be 100% equal and proporitionate in every way.

[redqueen]

10. When did the incredibly high graduation rates begin?

[MellowDem]

17. Compared to men?

1982. So women who were just on the edge of graduating at higher rates than men are now 52. And the rates of graduation for women compared to men are much higher now than in 1982, not to mention it is easier for women graduating today to reach those higher positions than for a woman in 1982 at a faster pace. Of course, certain fields are still heavily dominated by men (or women), though for many reasons, not all of them sexist as much as social psychology.

[redqueen]

18. I would hope those women are being treated fairly in academia.

Based on the numbers in the original article, that seems like it might not be the case.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'social psychology'... is that similar to the reasons judges are more likely to give harsher sentences to minorities than others for the same crimes?

[MellowDem]

19. Not at all...

Fewer women go into science fields in the first place, for many reasons, which is why they are so poorly represented. Considering it is women's choice to go into other fields, it's hard to call such gaps due to sexism solely. Women (and men) are encouraged by society to go into certain fields. It is a reflection of many things.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

9. This is not a realistic assessment of the state of your average campus

Women are now the majority of students at all levels, but their remains a significant imbalance in areas of interest. The technical fields still are mostly male while other areas are increasingly female.

A good friend and colleague teaches Comp Sci a major state school on the east coast. She has seen a huge drop in the numbers of female Comp Sci students and is diligently trying to find out why. There does not seem to be a single cause. At times my daughter who went into Comp Sci found herself the only woman in 400 and 500 level courses. That is a dramatic changes from the 70s and early 80s when women were often nearly half of the comp sci classes.

[BlueIris]

13. K&R. nt

[caraher]

14. It's just a few fields, but that doesn't matter

It is still a loss to those fields!

I'm proud of the fact that for several years, my physics department has had female majors in proportion to our institution's enrollment (about 55% women). Nationwide it's under 25% in physics at the undergraduate level, and drops off as you go through advanced degrees. In my field and a few others, the "pipeline" is still male-dominated all the way from one end to the other, and simply waiting for women to work their way up the ranks will not change the imbalance.

And I'm not losing any sleep over the large fraction of women teaching women's studies...

[Bill McBlueState]

15. Here are some numbers for astronomy

Graduate enrollment in US astronomy departments has risen from 25%
female in 1997 to 30% in 2006 (NSF-NIH Survey of Grad Students and
Postdocs in S&E).

Percentage of Astronomy PhDs earned by women in the US has increased
steadily from (20% in 1997 to almost 30% in 2006 (NSF Survey of
Earned doctorates).

Percentage of women faculty at stand-alone astronomy departments
in 2006 was 28% (assistant professors), 24 % (associate professors),
and only 11% (full professors).

The good news: the Grad Student -- Postdoc joint of the leaky pipeline
does not appear to be leaking!

The not so good news: the faculty pipeline continues to leak.

source: http://www.aas.org/cswa/bulletin.board/2009/10.30.09.html