New Study Explores Diversity Among CAOs

As a companion to its series on American college presidents, the American Council on Education (ACE) released The CAO Census: A National Profile of Chief Academic Officers in February 2009. The report underscores the need for higher education to invest in recruiting men and women of color and white women to the presidency from the chief academic officer (CAO) position—described by the report’s authors as the “most likely pathway to a presidency.”

According to the report, 40 percent of all CAOs in 2008 were women. While 14.4 percent of CAOs were racial or ethnic minorities, only 6.4 percent of CAOs were minority women. Among CAOs, white women were most likely to say that they were “very satisfied” with their jobs. Similarly, minority women were least likely to say that they were “not very satisfied” or “dissatisfied” with their positions. Despite (or perhaps because of) these rates of satisfaction, both white women and minority women frequently expressed disinterest in transitioning to a presidency, with 49 percent of white women and 32 percent of minority women stating that they “do not intend to seek a presidency.”

The report explores the reasons CAOs cite for not aspiring to the presidency, including finding the work unappealing and concerns about balancing work and family life. Among CAOs who were undecided about seeking the presidency, men were more likely than women to cite concerns about family balance. Notably, however, women were less likely than men to be married (69 percent versus 91 percent), more likely to never have married (7 percent versus 3 percent), more likely to be divorced (14 percent versus 3 percent), and less likely to have children (69 percent versus 88 percent).

The full report explores CAOs’ career paths, responsibilities, and aspirations, both in aggregate and with data disaggregated by institutional type. To order a copy of the study, written by Peter D. Eckel, Bryan J. Cook, and Jacqueline E. King, visit www.acenet.edu.

Women’s Representation on Boards of Trustees Increases

The Cornell Survey Research Institute (SRI) and the Cornell Higher Education Research Institute (CHERI) recently surveyed four-year colleges and universities to obtain information about gender representation on their governing boards during the period from 1981 to 2007. The survey indicated that women’s representation as both board members and board chairs has increased slowly but steadily during this period.

Among board members, the average female share rose from 20 percent in 1981 to 31 percent in 2007, while the share of female board chairs rose from about 10 percent in 1981 to 18 percent in 2007. By 2007, 90 percent of boards included at least three female board members (considered “critical mass” to fundamentally affect governance), compared with 60 percent in 1981. Throughout this period, the average gender ratios of public and private boards were roughly equivalent, with public boards more often having female chairs. Comparing institutional types (doctoral, master’s, and baccalaureate), the survey found that doctoral institutions had the lowest female representation both on boards and among board chairs.

Future papers related to the survey will explore how the gender of board members and chairs affects the gender of university leaders (chancellors, presidents, and chief academic officers) and gender diversity among faculty members. A short paper summarizing survey results, written by Ronald G. Ehrenberg and Joyce B. Main, is available at www.ilr.cornell.edu/cheri/surveys/2008surveyResults.html.

Gender Parity in Academic Pay and Promotion Remains Elusive

Women faculty continue to be compensated and promoted at lower rates than men, according to new data from the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). “On the Brink: The Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession, 2008-09,” released in April 2009, details these disparities in pay and promotion.

AAUP data released with the report indicate that women faculty have lower average salaries than men at every academic rank and within each institutional type. The salary gap is most pronounced at doctoral institutions, where men’s combined average salaries are 28 percent more than women’s. Conversely, the salary gap is smallest at associate’s institutions, where men’s combined average salaries are 5 percent more than women’s. Salary gaps within each institutional type similarly correlate to relative levels of prestige, with greater disparities tending to occur at higher ranks.

Identifying faculty rank as “the most important variable for predicting faculty compensation,” the report’s authors link these pay gaps to women’s slow advancement through academic ranks. In recent years, women have achieved representational parity at the assistant professor rank at master’s, baccalaureate, and associate’s institutions. However, the ratio of men to women assistant professors at doctoral institutions is still 1.2 to 1. At the professor rank, men outnumber women by only small margins at associate’s institutions, but the ratio of male to female professors is more than 2 to 1 at baccalaureate and master’s institutions and nearly 4 to 1 at doctoral institutions.

The report’s authors conclude that women’s equity has been realized only in community colleges, and “substantial impediments” to women’s advancement remain. To download the report (written by John W. Curtis and Saranna Thornton) and related tables, visit www.aaup.org/AAUP/comm/rep/Z/ecstatreport08-09/.

Work-Life Balance Concerns Deter Future Professoriate

New research conducted within the University of California system indicates that future faculty may be veering away from academic careers before even merging onto the “fast track.” According to the study’s authors, today’s doctoral students, particularly women, see research-intensive tenure-track positions as hazardous pathways for workers with families.

The study’s authors found that only 46 percent of men and 29 percent of women in doctoral programs see tenure-track faculty positions in research-intensive institutions as “somewhat or very family friendly,” with both women and men seeing teaching-intensive colleges as comparatively family friendly. Not incidentally, both men and women report losing interest in research-intensive faculty positions over the course of their doctoral studies, with 36 percent of men and 27 percent of women reporting an interest in these careers at the time of the survey (compared with 45 percent of men and 39 percent of women who say they had wanted to pursue research-intensive careers when they began their doctoral programs).

The authors indicate that students’ perceptions about the demands of balancing academic work and family life “are not unfounded.” Among respondents, women with children report devoting more than one hundred hours a week to “PhD work, employment, housework, and caregiving,” compared to a still-overwhelming ninety hours a week for men with children and seventy-five hours a week for women and men without children. Faced with these realities, the authors recommend replacing the “assumptions” that currently govern academe with a series of specific “antidotes” that create family-friendly workplaces. These include allowing part-time status and extended promotion timelines, providing resources to support parents, and reducing the stigma attached to parenting.

Results of the study, conducted by Mary Ann Mason, Marc Goulden, and Karie Frasch, are available in the January-February 2009 issue of Academe: www.aaup.org/AAUP/pubsres/academe/2009/JF/Feat/maso.htm.

Women Faculty Report Greater Dissatisfaction than Men

In March 2009, the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California-Los Angeles released the results of its 2007-08 faculty norms survey. In addition to exploring changes in faculty teaching styles and goals related to student learning, the survey uncovered gender-based differences in job satisfaction for women and men in academe.

The survey measured job satisfaction across a range of factors, including “freedom to determine course content,” “autonomy and independence,” “job security,” “overall job satisfaction,” “teaching load,” “prospects for career advancement,” and “opportunity for scholarly pursuits.” Overall, men are more likely to be satisfied with each of these factors than women. While women and men reported roughly equivalent satisfaction across all measures at the assistant professor rank, differences in satisfaction were more pronounced at the full professor rank. For example, while 51.4 percent of women and 54.5 percent of men at the assistant professor rank reported satisfaction with their teaching loads, at the full professor rank, these figures were 53.2 percent for women and 66.2 percent for men.

Women also reported being less satisfied than their male peers with factors related to campus diversity. While 73.2 percent of faculty believe that their institution should hire more faculty of color, women were 10.2 percentage points more likely to believe this than men. Similarly, 57.1 percent of faculty believe that their institution should hire more women faculty, with women 9.9 percentage points more likely to believe this than men. Women were also much more likely than men to report “subtle discrimination in the form of prejudice, racism, and/or sexism as a source of stress,” with 38.7 percent of women and 18.2 percent of men reporting these forms of stress.

The full report, titled The American College Teacher: National Norms for the 2007-2008 HERI Faculty Survey, can be ordered at www.gseis.ucla.edu/heri/pr-display.php?prQry=40.

MLA Releases Report on Women in the Profession

The Modern Language Association’s Committee on the Status of Women in the Profession recently released a new report on the professional activities and advancement of women in academe. Titled “Still Standing: The Associate Professor Survey,” the April 2009 report identifies a significant gender gap in the time to attaining full professor status and contemplates the reasons for this disparity.

According to the report, women in the MLA spend an average of 8.2 years at the associate professor rank before being promoted to full professor, compared with 6.6 years for men. This gap is likely related to differences in how men and women spend their professional time, with men spending more time per week on activities traditionally rewarded by review committees, such as research and writing (9.7 hours for men and 7.7 hours for women). Meanwhile, women spend more time per week on teaching activities like grading (7.5 hours for women and 6.0 for men) and in-class instruction (7.1 hours for women and 6.6 for men).

The report also identifies correlations between family status and length of time before promotion. Women who are married or in a marriage-like relationship spent more years than men at the associate professor rank (8.8 years for women and 6.8 years for men), while both men and women who were married and had dependent children were promoted more quickly than their married counterparts without children.

Finally, the report summarizes differences in satisfaction, indicating that women are less satisfied than men in almost every area with the exception of quality of students. Seeing alarming messages about the future of the profession in these figures, the report issues a series of recommendations to make the profession more appealing for women and support their advancement. The full report is available at www.mla.org/assocprof_survey. 

Equity in College Sports Declines

The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) at the University of Central Florida released its 2008 Racial and Gender Report Card on College Sport in February 2009. Examining the demographics of student athletes, coaches, athletic directors, conference commissioners, and other sports-related positions, the report gave college sports a grade of C+ for race (compared to a B- in 2006-07) and a B for gender (compared to a B+ in 2006-07). These grades were based on participation rates within college sports as compared with U.S. population demographics.

In the category of student-athlete participation, the report gave college sports a grade of A+ for race and a grade of A for gender. With the exception of Division I men’s basketball, however, occupants of coaching positions were far less diverse in terms of race, with Division I men’s teams overall receiving a grade of C+/B- for race (and Football Bowl Subdivision football teams receiving a grade of F). In contrast, head coaches for all Division I women’s teams received an A for gender and a B for race (with women’s basketball receiving an A+ for gender and a B for race). Despite these high marks, men continued to coach the majority of women’s teams at the Division I, II, and III levels, with women coaching under 5 percent of men’s teams in each division. Within staff positions, participation was considerably lower, with college sports earning F’s for both race and gender equity among Division I athletic directors, and a C+ and C for race and gender respectively among Division I assistant and associate directors.

The report’s authors urge colleges and universities to recognize that diversity of gender, race, and ethnicity “can provide a different perspective, and possibly a competitive advantage for a win in the board room as well as on the athletic fields of play.” It identifies college sports as the gateway to opportunity in sports for women and people of color and underscores the need for improvement in participation in these areas. To download the complete report, written by director Richard Lapchick with Eric Little, Colleen Lerner, and Ray Mathew, visit www.tidesport.org/RGRC/2008/2008CollegRGRC.pdf.