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Gender divide continues among professors

Average three-and-a-half years longer for women to be promoted over men

Female faculty members at universities across the country, including the University of Wisconsin, are still suffering from gender inequality in the workplace, according to a report released Monday.

According to “Standing Still: The Associate Professor Survey” conducted by the Modern Language Association, women faculty members are promoted from the associate professor to professor less often than men.

The report presents detailed statistics and recommendations directed at educators and university staff to encourage schools to address gender divides among full professors and their associate professors.

Kathleen Woodward, UW professor and lead author of the MLA survey, said in the case of research doctoral institutions like UW, it takes an average of three-and-a-half years longer for women to be promoted to the full professor rank compared to their male colleagues.

“You may think, ‘Three-and-a-half years, that’s not so long,’ but it’s almost 60 percent longer, and that is just not acceptable,” Woodward said.

UW’s faculty is currently 29.8 percent female, according to Jocelyn Milner, UW administrator at the Department of Academic Planning and Analysis. Of that percentage, women make up 24 percent of full professors, 35 percent of associate professors and 42 percent of assistant professors.

“Of women who are hired as assistant professors, 42 percent of those women were hired as tenured professors within six years and 63.6 within nine years,” Milner said

Efforts from the Women in Science and Engineering Leader Institute to balance gender equality have been a constant presence on campus, Milner added.

The MLA report recommended colleges and universities establish clear and direct strategies for promotion from associate to full professor, offering significant increases in salary as a motivator and creating programs to help department chairs and deans mentor and train associate professors.

The report also said institutions should be vocal with associate professors to plan their research and encourage them to seek promotion.

“These persistent inequities show us that we have an unfinished agenda when in comes to sexism in the academy,” Woodward said. “We’ve got work to do, and I think the report will go a long way in bringing this to the attention of many people, people who are surprised by these findings. On the one hand you have intuition, but when you see this in black and white, it’s a wake-up call.”