Today I was in an orientation meeting for faculty members who have been assigned the honor of directing their department’s respective graduate programs (the subject of another day). One of the new associate deans in Graduate Studies happens to be a woman I have known for several years, but have not seen lately. After the meeting, I asked her how she liked her new position. She was effusive, stating that she loved the dean’s office and felt as though she were getting a lot of support to discover her niche in academia.
She, like me, had given birth, gone through a divorce, and now was a single parent, which had affected her career. We commiserated about our academic careers slow-downs and discussed how women generally were the ones who picked up the pieces when “life happened.” She even joked about another faculty member who asked her how her “vacation” was when she returned from maternity leave. None of this is particularly new or shocking, but it does highlight problems that still abound in academia, especially in the sciences.
Articles come out frequently that discuss the lack of women in senior positions within the university community and within businesses. These authors write as though they do not understand why this is still happening in the 21st century. After all we have addressed the issue of women’s rights, right?
Well, it is not all that mysterious. Simply put, women are far more likely to take parental leave or have career interruptions than men. This causes a slow down in the productivity of women, who then fall behind in promotion and salaries. Sadly in 2010, my university had an average salary gap of 20% between men and women, and it was especially egregious at level of full professor.
Until we figure out how to level the playing field in faculty merit assessments or until our culture changes so that both men and women are experiencing the same degree of career interruptions, women will continue to lag behind.
Cultural Herstory 