Non-tenure track women faculty: Opening the door (original) (raw)

"I didn't do it the right way”: Women’s Careers as Faculty in Higher Education Administration

This article explores the career paths of women faculty in Higher Education Administration graduate programs based on the results of a qualitative study of 18 faculty members at 14 different institutions. The majority of faculty members made their career choice during their undergraduate program, however, most participants in this study made their decision to follow a faculty career after entering a doctoral program or after completing their doctoral degree. Adding the post-doctoral decision point to process of career choice acknowledges the contribution of seasoned professionals to the field of Higher Education Administration and reflects the flexibility of a career path that may be conducive for women as they navigate a faculty career and family obligations.

The Navigation of the Gender and Tenure Paradigm

2010

Institutional cultures reflect and encourage socially designated gender roles. For many in academia this complicates the notion that the tenure process serves as a gateway for retention within institutions of higher education. Gender-specific organizational discourses and cultural practices are examined as are faculty members' necessitated quests for balance in their lives as teachers, researchers, authors, advisors, committee members, and in many cases, parents and caretakers. Unfortunately, the negotiation of this balancing act can vary given gender performance social norms and as such, it is not uncommon for female faculty to feel that the professional scale they must balance is heavily weighted with stumbling blocks of sex-based discrimination. The responsibilities of members of higher education institutions to educate faculty, particularly future female faculty, on the difficulties and navigation strategies of this balancing act are explored and described.

Faculty Reappointment, Tenure, and Promotion: Barriers for Women

The Professional Geographer, 2000

Women faculty continue to experience academe differently than male faculty. A review of recent literature indicates that women's representation on university faculties has advanced slowly; women are less likely to be tenured or promoted compared to male faculty; and women faculty earn less than their male colleagues. A recurring theme is that the intellectual and social isolation of women faculty affects their research productivity. Gender stereotypes held by colleagues, departmental and college administrators, and students also contribute to the difficulties women face in the reappointment, tenure, and promotion process. A personal perspective on the reappointment process is provided in order to illustrate how isolation and naïvete regarding the social structure of academe can affect a woman's career advancement. The benefits of greater representation of women on university faculties are reviewed, and departmental and college administrators are reminded of the important role they play in ensuring future gender-balanced faculties.

Tenured Women Faculty: Reasons for Leaving One Research University. ASHE Annual Meeting Paper

1994

In an effort to understand how higher education institutions can retain women faculty members, this study examined the attitudes of eight tenured women faculty who chose to leave one research university. Some went to other tenured academic positions, others to research agencies. Interviews included open-ended questions as well as focused probes concerning key factors. In addition, the study examined data from the Carnegie 1989 national college faculty survey analyzing the responses of 367 women and 1,749 men who held full-time tenured positions. Findings revealed that there were aspects of the environment at the university that made the women interviewed choose to leave. They described experiences and incidences where their career opportunities were blocked, where others treated them with disrespect, where they had too little personal or financial support, where salary was inequitable, where the university did not help with dual career issues, and where personal and institutional goals were mismatched. A significant number of these negative experiences were related to gender.'llesults from the analysis of the national survey supported the finding that aspects of the faculty work environment are important factors in decisions to leave an institution. (Contains 31 references.) (JB)

Widening the Lens on Gender and Tenure: Looking Beyond the Academic Labor Market

Women's tenure rates are widely and justifiably considered critical indicators of women's status within academia. In this article, however, we question the meaning of this indicator. We find that Ph.D. career path data show women's likelihood of getting tenure is equal to or better than men's in fields dominated by men. Most literature on gender and tenure focuses on family/work balance and academic climate issues, but a review of common labor market explanations in relation to Ph.D. career path data suggests that we need to view the academic labor market as just one segment of the broader labor market. In conclusion, we argue that understanding women's tenure status requires "widening the lens" to include the role of labor market alternatives to academic careers.

Women Faculty of Color: Success Stories from the Margins

2013

Based on data from a larger, longitudinal study of 22 women faculty on the tenure track, this qualitative study examines the socialization experiences of four women faculty of color (WFOC) who earned tenure at two public, research extensive, predominantly White institutions (PWIs) in the U.S. This study gives voice to WFOC who broke through the glass ceiling of tenure and were promoted to associate professor. Although these women earned tenure, their adjustment as newcomers to the academy was fraught with marginalization for being both women and persons of color. Specifically, the WFOC experienced challenges to their role clarity, self-efficacy and social acceptance—all of which are all key factors in the socialization of outsiders (untenured) to insiders (tenured) of an organization. This study holds implications for how WFOC can not only survive but also thrive in the tenure process. The underrepresentation of full-time women faculty of color (WFOC) in the academy is well document...

Gendered Facets of Faculty Careers and Challenges to

Women faculty remain underrepresented in many science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields in both Australia and the United States. Given the current interest in developing engineering education as a profession in its own right, it is necessary for engineering educators to examine and understand the experiences and working conditions of engineering faculty members. Otherwise, professionalization efforts risk ignoring and perpetuating gendered facets of faculty careers. Furthermore, those gendered facets of faculty careers stand as potential barriers to the successful promotion of engineering educator identities. Better understandings of the experiences of female faculty are necessary because gender biases of faculty careers often go unnoticed or unvoiced and therefore remain unproblematized as neutral features of academia.