Problems in the Pipeline: Gender, Marriage, and Fertility in the Ivory Tower (original) (raw)

2008, The Journal of Higher Education

Women do not fare as well as men in academia. Using nationally representative panel data from the 1981-1995 Survey of Doctoral Recipients, we find that marriage and children adversely affect the likelihood that women obtain tenure-track positions. Unmarried women without young children fare better on the academic job market than do men, who in turn are more likely to get jobs than are married women and women with young children. However, women's lower rates of tenure and promotion to full professor cannot be explained by marriage or the presence of children. Problems in the Pipeline 3 Problems in the Pipeline: Gender, Marriage, and Fertility in the Ivory Tower Introduction Women have traditionally fared worse than men in the workplace. In few places has this been more apparent than higher education (Jacobs, 1996). In 2003, women received 47% of Ph.D.s awarded (National Center for Education Statistics, 2005a) but comprised only 35% of tenured or tenure-track faculty (National Center for Education Statistics, 2005b). The gender gap widens incrementally higher up on the academic career ladder: among full-time faculty members, 48% of women are tenured, compared to 68% of men (Bellas, 2001). Perhaps more striking, just 26% of full professors are women (American Association of University Professors, 2001). In light of these imbalances, concerns regarding Title IX, which prohibits sex-based exclusion from educational programs receiving federal funds, have prompted congressional calls for inquiry (Wyden, 2003).