Invisible Barriers to the Success of Women and Minority Faculty

1. Invisible Barriers to the Success of Women and Minority Faculty Deborah A. Ballam, Ph.D., J.D. Associate Provost for Women’s Policy Initiatives Director, The Women’s Place The Ohio State University Ballam.1@osu.edu

2. Faculty Profile: Women • 93-94 04-05 • TIU Heads 16.5% 15.15% • Full 11.3% 17.2% • Associate 23.8% 30.4% • Assistant 39.6% 41.9% • Total 24.24% 28.1%

3. Women Faculty Profile: Race, & Ethnicity • 93-94 04-05 • Caucasian 663 708 • Black 41 43 • Asian American 33 59 • Hispanic 9 20 • Native American 0 1

4. Faculty Profile: Hiring1986-2004 • 38.2% of hires were women • Voluntary resignations higher for women • 18.7% versus 11.6% for men • Similar percent for faculty who did not voluntarily resign • 92% of men and 90% of women either achieved tenure or are still on tenure track

5. What is life like for women and minority faculty? • Many studies show that women and faculty members from underrepresented groups are considerably less satisfied with many aspects of their jobs than are majority male faculty

6. 1987 Junior Faculty Life at Ohio State:Insights on Gender & Race • Many women and junior faculty from underrepresented groups feel • Marginalized • Isolated • Less informed about critical information • Overwhelmed by work load • For women, difficulties in balancing career & family • Subtle hostility and stereotypes

7. 1990 StudyFactors Influencing Faculty Women to Resign from the University 1. Family considerations • Time commitment in combining career and family 2. Strong dissatisfaction with work environment • Lack of collegiality • Lack of support by chairs • Lack of respect • Lack of flexibility • Overt hostility as well as subtle discrimination 3. A combination of 1 and 2

8. 1994-95 Faculty/Staff Attitude Survey • Women faculty felt less positive than men faculty regarding • Perceived job security • Sense of being valued both professionally and personally • Perceived fairness with the tenure process • Satisfaction with amount of work

9. 1994-95 Faculty/Staff Attitude Survey • Faculty from underrepresented groups: • “Minorities express additional and stronger dissatisfaction [than non-minorities] when it comes to the racial climate.”

10. SRI Study 2000 • http://www.coe.ohio-state.edu/ademb/EdPL842/Additional%20reports/osu-min-rpt.htm

11. SRI Study 2000 • Women faculty report lower level of job satisfaction than men faculty • Nearly a third of women faculty felt “left out of the loop” in their departments • Nearly half of women felt dissatisfied with their department’s parental leave policy • 2/3 of women faculty felt they had to work harder than men to get the same rewards • 1 in 6 women faculty reported experiencing some form of sexual harassment at OSU

12. SRI Study 2000 • Conclusion regarding female faculty from underrepresented groups: “Clearly, minority female faculty respondents find that campus treatment of their racial/ethnic group and/or their gender is a serious obstacle to professional success. The picture that many of them report is one of professional isolation, insufficient resources, too little recognition, salary discrimination, and difficulty in arranging the intellectual collaboration needed to succeed in their academic endeavors.”

13. HERI Faculty Survey 2001-2002Ohio State findings • Women at all faculty ranks more likely than men to • Disagree with the statement “women are treated fairly here” • Report subtle discrimination had been a source of stress for them • Report they had been sexually harassed at OSU • Have interrupted their career for more than a year for family reasons

14. HERI Faculty Survey 2001-2002 • Women at assistant rank • Show a significant difference (lower) in the production of scholarly writings during their last two years in rank • Are less likely than other faculty in their department to feel valued for their research • More likely to report stress related to colleagues

15. HERI Faculty Survey 2001-2002 • Women at associate rank • Report more satisfaction than men with • Office/lab space • Teaching load • Quality of students • Report more stress than men, related to • Colleagues • Faculty meetings • Committee work • Report spending more time on committee work and meetings than men • Students • Report spending more time per week advising/counseling students

16. HERI Faculty Survey 2001-2002 • Women at full rank • Report a higher # of books, manuals and monographs than men at full rank • Report more stress than men related to committee work • Less likely than men to agree their department had providing helpful mentoring in teaching • Report spending more than men • Time preparing for teaching • Time per week advising/counseling students • Report less satisfaction than men with • Overall job • Relationships with administration

17. HERI Faculty Survey 2001-2002 • African American faculty • Significantly more likely than remaining faculty to report that students had been a source of stress in the last 2 years • Significantly less likely than remaining faculty to report being satisfied with • professional relations with other faculty • Autonomy and independence • Opportunities to develop new ideas • Overall job

18. HERI Faculty Survey 2001-2002 • Both African American and Asian American faculty significantly more likely to report that subtle discrimination had been a source of stress in the past 2 years

19. OSU Family Work Environment and Work/Life Quality Report2003 • http://hr.osu.edu/hrpubs/facultyworklifeinfo.pdf

20. OSU Family Work Environment and Work/Life Quality Report 2003 • Finding re both male and female faculty • “Faculty report they would value greater assistance from their chair/director in ensuring the success of their work and greater support from their chair/director when personal or family needs arise….Survey results demonstrate the pivotal role that the department chair plays: faculty rate greater assistance from the chair/director in ensuring the success of their work as the program or resource most important to their continuing at OSU.”

21. Retaining Female Tenure-Track Assistant Professors 2005 • Research conducted on the 50 women assistant professors hired in 2001 • see attachment A, or • http://womensplace.osu.edu

22. Retaining Female Tenure-Track Assistant Professors 2005 Women faculty from OSU as well as other studies tend to fall into one of two groups: 1. Those who feel connected to their department, sufficiently mentored, and well-informed with regard to P&T 2. Those who feel isolated in their department, detached from senior faculty, and disenfranchised by performance expectations

23. Retaining Female Tenure-Track Assistant Professors 2005 Conclusions about how OSU could create a more supportive environment for women faculty • Establish a formal spousal accommodation policy • Enhance university child care services • Evaluate the current process for selecting and managing department chairs • Establish explicit work load limits

24. Retaining Female Tenure-Track Assistant Professors Finding regarding department chairs • “A number of participants identified a sense of frustration with their department chairs. Those individuals described their department chairs as non-directive and unhelpful, and spoke of their chairs as failing to display developmental leadership and failing to provide adequate guidance or explanation regarding T&P.”

25. Retaining Female Tenure-Track Assistant Professors 2005 • “Often, the unsupportive nature of the department chair appeared to be reflective of a broader department culture. In other words, when members spoke of encountering problems with their chair, they also often noted that they found their department or relevant work group to be unsupportive as well.”

26. Additional barriers for women of color faculty • Professional isolation • Insufficient resources • Too little recognition • Salary discrimination • Difficulty in arranging professional collaboration • Subtle discrimination even more evident for women of color

27. When there are not a lot of others like you in your department • The loneliness can be overwhelming • People feel uncomfortable around you and thus avoid you, increasing the loneliness and isolation • Burden of representation—you are constantly asked to be the spokesperson for your group—the time this takes in itself is a form of discrimination

28. Themes Illustrating Invisible Barriers • Time commitment in combining career and care giving responsibilities • Lack of flexibility • Feeling of overwhelming workload • Relationship with colleagues • Overt hostility and sexual harassment • Lack of collegiality • Feelings of being disrespected, marginalized and isolated • Subtle discrimination and stereotypes • Stress re faculty meetings • lack of sharing of critical information re success • Relationship with students • Stress from students • Time spent advising/counseling students

29. “Do Babies Matter?” • Study by Mary Ann Mason & Marc Goulden from U. of California system • Studied data re 160,000 Ph.D. recipients in the Survey of Earned Doctorates data base • Question they asked—what effect do babies have on faculty careers? • See attachment B

30. Babies Do Matter--For both men and women • Having babies early in their career helps male faculty but hurts female faculty • Male faculty who have young children early in their career are 38% more likely to achieve tenure than their female counterparts who have young children early in their career

31. Faculty Careers and Babies:Where are faculty who have early babies? • Male faculty • 77% are in full-time tenure track positions • 23% are in part-time or at 2-year colleges • Female faculty • 56% are in full-time tenure track positions • 44% are in part-time or at 2-year colleges

32. Other data from “Do Babies Matter?” • Women faculty more than twice as likely as men to indicate they had fewer children than they wanted • Women at ‘fast-track’ universities who are married when they begin their academic career are twice as likely as men to divorce • Most academic women are married to men with advanced degrees but most academic men are not married to women with advanced degrees

33. Other data from “Do Babies Matter?” • Women between ages 30-50 with children report spending over 100 hours per week on their professional and family responsibilities • Similarly situated men report spending 85 hours per week

34. Other data from “Do Babies Matter?” • 59% of married women with children still in the academy indicated they were thinking of leaving the academy • Married women with children who leave academia are far more likely than others to cite children as one of the reasons they changed their career

35. OSU data on “Do Babies Matter?” • Male faculty are 2.5 times more likely to have a spouse/partner available full-time or part-time to assist with family and household-related responsibilities • Women faculty are more dissatisfied with their ability to integrate their academic and personal and family roles

36. OSU data on “Do Babies Matter?” • Faculty with neither dependent children nor adult care responsibilities report less stress and burnout than faculty with these responsibilities • Female faculty score higher on stress and burnout than male faculty at the same rank

37. OSU data on “Do Babies Matter?” • Family considerations are a top factor in many faculty members’ decision to continue to work at OSU • Only one in three faculty members perceive OSU as supportive of personal and family responsibilities

38. OSU data on “Do Babies Matter?” • Many faculty who have children struggle with some child care arrangements, especially back-up care and temporary care when schools are closed • More women faculty than men report child care difficulties

39. OSU data on “Do Babies Matter?” • About 1/3 of women faculty, twice as many as men faculty, delayed starting a family due to the progress of their academic careers • Those who delay starting families are less satisfied with their positions at OSU and their ability to integrate their work and personal roles

40. OSU data on “Do Babies Matter?” • 2/3 of women and ½ of men report too much time is required of their positions • 1/3 of assistant and associate women faculty and 1/5 of assistant and associate men faculty would reduce hours and salary in order to have more personal time • Assistant rank women highly value extension of the tenure clock

41. OSU data on “Do Babies Matter?” • Higher proportions of assistant and associate women faculty than men faculty plan to leave OSU in the next three to four years

42. OSU data on “Do Babies Matter?” Conclusion from HERI survey: • “The gender differences seen here attest to the greater difficulty women encounter in attempting to combine family and faculty work” which is a concern for several reasons: • Women faculty leave • They stay but are less satisfied because the life choices they felt they had to make to be successful • Women graduate students are deterred from pursuing academic careers

43. What Has OSU Done? • Tenure clock extension • Family leave policy • Spousal hiring policy and placement service • Part-time tenure track option • Any faculty can go on 50% or 75% status and remain on tenure track • Probationary faculty who do so also can extend the tenure clock for up to 3 years (in addition to 2-year extension for tolling tenure clock) if on part-time status

44. What has OSU done? Child care facilities • Over 400 spots, but always over 1,000 on waiting list • Critical shortage in the community for infant care spots

45. What can chairs/directors do? • Create family friendly culture • Flexibility and culture that supports parents leaving during day for school events • Meeting times—do not hold meetings before 8 or after 5 • Begin viewing child care as a necessity just as having a computer and a parking spot are necessities

46. What can chairs/directors do? • Lead culture change in department • Success stories—key factor was a family friendly environment • Faculty who cannot work 80 hours per week in the office because of family commitments are not slackers who don’t want to work hard • Encourage faculty to use the tolling tenure clock rule and ensure they are not penalized for doing so

47. Relationships with colleagues Themes • Overt hostility and sexual harassment • Subtle discrimination and stereotypes • Feelings of being disrespected, marginalized and isolated • Lack of collegiality • Stress re faculty meetings • Lack of sharing of critical information regarding success

48. Overt hostility and sexual harassment • You cannot ignore this • You must respond in some way • How do you respond? • Contact The Women’s Place, OAA and HR for help in responding

49. Subtle discrimination and stereotypes • One of the two most significant barriers for women in the workplace (the other is work/family balance) • Race/ethnicity increases subtle discrimination and stereotypes for women of color

50. Subtle discrimination and stereotypes • A wide body of research shows that stereotypes and schemas all too frequently lead to unfair evaluations of members of the group being judged by the stereotype or schema