From Scarcity to Visibility Gender Differences in the Careers of Doctoral Scientists and Engineers (2001) / Chapter Skim
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6: The Academic Career
6: The Academic Career
Pages 123-186
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From page 123... ...
First, doctoral scientists and engineers are traditionally trained to work in academia. Although the proportion of scientists and engineers working in academia has been declining since 1970, the academic sector remains the single largest employer of doctoral scientists and engineers.
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From page 124... ...
Accordingly, in the analyses that follow we give special attention to scientists and engineers working in Research I universities and medical schools. Not only do these locations provide the majority of doctoral and postdoctoral training, but they are also the most conducive organizational contexts for a prestigious research career.
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From page 125... ...
, women are substantially more likely to be in academic positions, as shown by the bar graphs on the right. In 1973, 68 percent of women in the full-time labor force held academic jobs, compared to only 56 percent of the men.
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From page 126... ...
Positive values indicate a greater proportion of full-time women than full-time men are working in academia. In 1973 for all fields combined, 12 percentage points more women than men in the full-time labor force were employed in academia.
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From page 127... ...
rates of increase of female academics, as shown by Figures 6-4 and 6-5. In the life and social/behavioral sciences, the percent of full-time academics who are women increased by nearly 20 percentage points from 1973 to 1995.
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From page 128... ...
Among older academics, the presence of women grew most rapidly in the social and behavioral sciences, but in 1995 women still represented less than 25 percent of the total among older social and behavioral scientists. When we consider more recent Ph.D.s, the increases and overall levels are much
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From page 129... ...
THE ACADEMIC CAREER 129 1973 1979 1989 1995 Percent Women - Career Age > 10 50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Combined Engineering Mathematics Physical Life Social/ Fields Sciences Sciences Behavioral Sciences FIGURE 6-6 Percent of the full-time academic labor force that is female for those who received their Ph.D.s more than 10 years ago, by field and year of survey. 1973 1979 1989 1995 50 Percent Women - Career Age < 11 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Combined Engineering Mathematics Physical Life Social/ Fields Sciences Sciences Behavioral Sciences FIGURE 6-7 Percent of the full-time academic labor force that is female for those who received their Ph.D.s in the last 10 years, by field and year of survey.
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From page 130... ...
for men and women is increasing. In 1973, the mean career age for women was 9.5 years and 11.1 years for men; in 1979, 8.9 years for women and 12.7 years for men; in 1989, 10.6 years for women and 15.9 years for men; and in 1995, 11.2 years and 17.0 years.
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From page 131... ...
THE ACADEMIC CAREER 131 Panel A: 1973 – AGE percent within each sex 43+ 40-42 37-39 34-36 31-33 28-30 25-27 22-24 19-21 16-18 13-15 10-12 7-9 4-6 1-3 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 Men: % of Men Women: % of Women Panel B: 1995 – AGE percent within each sex 43+ 40-42 37-39 34-36 31-33 28-30 25-27 22-24 19-21 16-18 13-15 10-12 7-9 4-6 1-3 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 Men: % of Men Women: % of Women FIGURE 6-8 Sex specific distribution of career ages of scientists in the full-time academic labor force. NOTE: Percentages are sex specific.
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From page 132... ...
Even with the rapid increase in the percent of women receiving Ph.D.s and entering academia, women are far from being half of the academic labor force, as shown by the much smaller area of the light gray bars compared to the dark gray bars. While new cohorts of Ph.D.s entering the academic marketplace are increasingly female, each new cohort is only a small proportion of those currently employed.
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From page 133... ...
THE ACADEMIC CAREER 133 Panel A: 1973 – percent of total population AGE 43+ 40-42 37-39 34-36 31-33 28-30 25-27 22-24 19-21 16-18 13-15 10-12 7-9 4-6 1-3 20 15 10 5 0 0 5 10 15 20 Men: % of Total Women: % of Total Panel B: 1995 – percent of total population AGE 43+ 40-42 37-39 34-36 31-33 28-30 25-27 22-24 19-21 16-18 13-15 10-12 7-9 4-6 1-3 20 15 10 5 0 0 5 10 15 20 Men: % of Total Women: % of Total FIGURE 6-9 Distribution of career ages of scientists in the full-time academic labor force. NOTES: Panels A and B show the percent of the total population in a given age/sex category.
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From page 134... ...
In later analyses, we sometimes combine Research I, Research II, and Doctoral institutions with Medical schools and refer to this group as research institutions. Our analyses exclude 4.5 percent of the male academics and 3.5 percent of the female academics who did not provide sufficient information about their employer to determine the Carnegie type.
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From page 135... ...
1973 1979 1989 1995 60 50 Percent of Students 40 30 20 10 0 Research I Research II Doctoral Master's Baccalaureate FIGURE 6-10 Student enrollment in higher education, by Carnegie type of institution and year of survey. SOURCE: National Science Board 1998: Appendix Table 2-8.
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From page 136... ...
This critical issue is discussed below. Second, gender differences in the institutional distribution of employment have declined substantially since 1973, with women being relatively more likely to be in the more prestigious Research and Medical institutions.
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From page 137... ...
The net effect of these changes is that men and women have become increasingly similar in their distribution among types of institutions. And, among Research I and Medical institutions combined, the 5 point over-representation of men in 1973 turned into a 3 point under-representation in 1995.
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From page 138... ...
During this same period, the proportion of women in medical schools increased more slowly, from 21 percent in 1973 to 31 percent in 1995. As a consequence, the overrepresentation of women in medical schools decreased from 9 points in 1973 to 3 points in 1995.7 The Proportion of Academics Who Are Women As a result of the increasing proportion of new Ph.D.s who are women and the greater tendency of women to enter academia, the percentage of full-time doctoral employees who are women has increased steadily in all types of institutions, as shown by Figure 6-12.
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From page 139... ...
1973 1979 1989 1995 35 30 25 20 15 Percent Female 10 5 0 Combined Types Research I Medical Research II Doctoral Master's Baccalaureate FIGURE 6-12 Percent of full-time academics who are women, by Carnegie type and year of survey.
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From page 140... ...
Women 21.4 Difference –8.6 Social and Total 66.8 66.2 62.8 62.2 –4.6 43.0 Behavioral Men 68.0 66.1 61.8 60.8 –7.2 43.0 Sciences Women 57.6 66.6 65.7 65.3 7.7 38.1 Difference 10.4 –0.5 –3.9 –4.5 –14.9 4.9 NOTE: -- indicates too few women in category to estimate percentage. aResearch institutions include Research I, Research II, Doctoral, and Medical institutions.
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From page 141... ...
THE ACADEMIC CAREER 141 cs in Research I or Medicalb Change 1973 1979 1989 1995 Change –3.7 59.7 60.6 60.6 58.7 –1.0 –3.5 59.7 60.6 60.6 58.7 –1.0 0.2 -- – -- – 65.7 55.5 –10.2 –3.1 -- – -- – –5.1 3.2 8.3 –6.3 43.7 45.3 41.8 37.7 –6.0 –7.4 43.7 45.3 41.8 37.7 –6.0 3.6 -- – 37.7 33.2 38.1 0.4 –10.9 -- – 7.6 8.6 –0.4 –8.0 0.9 47.9 49.5 50.1 50.7 2.8 0.9 47.9 49.5 50.1 50.7 2.8 8.0 43.4 49.8 53.7 51.4 8.0 –7.1 4.5 –0.3 –3.6 –0.7 –5.2 1.6 46.8 38.5 38.8 35.1 –11.7 1.7 47.9 39.1 39.2 36.4 –11.7 5.5 37.5 34.8 37.2 31.8 –5.7 –3.8 10.4 4.3 2.0 4.6 –5.8 13.7 25.1 28 28.9 15.2 12.8 24.6 26.9 28.0 15.2 21.4 28.7 31.5 31.1 9.7 –8.6 –4.1 –4.6 –3.1 5.5 –4.6 43.0 41.2 39.1 36.9 –6.1 –7.2 43.0 41.2 39.1 36.9 –6.1 7.7 38.1 45.9 46.1 46.0 7.9 –14.9 4.9 –4.7 –7.0 –9.1 –14.0 titutions.
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From page 142... ...
The increase in the percentage of women occurred in all fields, as shown in Table 6-3, with engineering, mathematics, and the physical sciences showing the least growth. Among these fields, the only increase greater than 10 percentage points in the proportion of women was in the very small number of engineers at Baccalaureate institutions.
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From page 143... ...
Within the social and behavioral sciences, the greatest propor tions of women are found in Research I and Baccalaureate institutions. In the life sciences, women are working most often in Medical, Doctoral, Master's, and Baccalaureate institutions, where in 1995 they were nearly one-third of the full-time academics.
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From page 144... ...
In comparison, off-track positions have lower pay, fewer resources, and less security. They include temporary teaching positions, research positions funded by soft money, visiting scholars, adjunct faculty without tenure-track appointments elsewhere, postdoctoral fellows, and lower level administrative positions.
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From page 145... ...
While this suggests that there has been little progress for women in becoming members of the faculty, these overall figures mask broad differences in the availability of faculty positions by field, type of institution, in different historical periods, and at different stages of the career. To see the progress that has been 10The information in this section is from Rossiter (1982:203-217; 1995:149-164)
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From page 146... ...
made, we must adjust for gender differences in background characteristics and changes over time. Figures 6-14 and 6-15 show the distribution across fields and types of institutions in the availability of faculty positions.
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From page 147... ...
1979 1989 1995 100 90 Percent on Tenure Track 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Research I Medical Research II Doctoral Master's Baccalaureate FIGURE 6-15 Percent of full-time academics with faculty positions, by Carnegie type and year of survey. NOTE: Data were not available in 1973.
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From page 148... ...
Comparing the heavy line for 1989 to the thin line for 1979 shows differences over a 10-year period in the proportion of doctoral scientists and engineers who have faculty positions. The biggest change is the decrease in the proportion who have tenure-track faculty positions in years 10 through 20 of the career.
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From page 149... ...
Unfortunately, we cannot tell from these data whether the similarities between men and women among the youngest cohorts will continue as they age or whether the men in these cohorts will become over-represented in faculty positions over time. There is, however, some reason to believe that women have im Men Women 100 90 Percent on Tenure Track - 1995 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 Years Since Ph.D.
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From page 150... ...
To adjust for age differences we estimated logit models that predict being in a faculty position after controlling for career age.12 Separate models were estimated for men and women for each year of the survey. Differences in the adjusted proportions of men and women in their fifthteenth career year are shown by the lighter bars.
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From page 151... ...
production and the job market for faculty continue, we expect that there will be increases in the percent of women with faculty positions in the next decade. While the most important factor affecting gender differences in faculty status is the age of a scientist or engineer, there are also important differences related to field, type of institution, and other variables.
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From page 152... ...
Data were not available in 1973. 1979 1989 1995 25 Percent of Men - Percent of Women 20 15 10 5 0 –5 Engineering Mathematics Physical Life Sciences Social and Sciences Behavioral Sciences FIGURE 6-20 Gender difference in adjusted proportions with tenure-track positions, by field and year of survey.
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From page 153... ...
For example, the value of –8.9 for being a foreign citizen in 1979 for women means that the logit model predicted that 8.9 percentage points fewer women were in faculty positions if they were foreign citizens compared to being an American citizen. The key findings are as follows.
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From page 154... ...
For example, a woman with young children might find it difficult to accept a faculty position, but it is also possible that women who cannot find a suitable faculty position are more likely to start a family. Nonetheless, our findings show that until recently family obligations were important for women in the process of obtaining a faculty positions.
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From page 155... ...
This plot shows the percent of faculty positions held by women (Panel A) and the percent of off-track positions held by women (Panel B)
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From page 156... ...
156 FROM SCARCITY TO VISIBILITY 1979 1989 1995 50 Percent On-Track who are Women 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 e ic e r's Ty egie I al II l ra at em im h ic h s te s rc to re ad ll-T pe rc ed as n ea oc au ea ar M Ac Fu M D es al lC es cc R R Al Ba Panel A: The percent of faculty who are women 1979 1989 1995 50 Percent Off-Track who are Women 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 pe ie I al II l 's te em me ra h er Ty eg ic h ea s rc to s rc ed t ad -Ti ic as n ea oc ur ea ar M Ac ull la M D es lC es ca F R R Al c Ba Panel B: The percent of off-track academics who are women FIGURE 6-22 Percent of those in faculty positions and those with off-track positions who are women, by Carnegie type and year of survey. NOTES: The last set of bars is the percent of all full-time academics who are women.
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From page 157... ...
The four panels of Figure 6-23 show the distribution of jobs for four groups of institutions. The darkest region at the bottom of each bar corresponds to teaching positions that are not on a tenure track.13 Teaching is the primary activity in Baccalaureate institutions, with steadily falling proportions as we move to Research I and Medical institutions.
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From page 158... ...
FIGURE 6-23 Distribution of non-tenure track academics among work activities, by sex, Carnegie type of institution, and year of survey. (Continued)
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From page 159... ...
Teaching Research Management Prof. Services Other 100 90 80 Percent - Medical Institutions 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 1979 1989 1995 1979 1989 1995 Men Women Panel D: Medical Institutions.
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From page 160... ...
In research universities, research productivity is the main criterion, while in baccalaureate institutions teaching is normally the most important activity. While a tenure review usually occurs in the sixth year (the 1940 statement specified a probationary period of no more than seven years)
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From page 161... ...
in Figure 6-24 for the survey years 1979, 1989, and 1995.16 For each year, the proportion of faculty with tenure is quite low immediately after the degree and increases rapidly between years 6 and 10. Keep in mind that while most schools grant tenure after the sixth year in rank, this corresponds to different professional ages for individual faculty depending on the amount of time the person held postdoctoral fellowships or off-track positions before the initial faculty appointment.
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From page 162... ...
same time the percent with tenure at a given stage of the career has decreased. An important limitation in our analysis of the effects of career age on tenure is that we do not have information on years of experience in offtrack positions.
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From page 163... ...
. With the exception of life scientists in medical schools (see +Med and oMed)
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From page 164... ...
There is a weaker relationship between mean age and the percent tenured across Carnegie types of institutions, as shown in Figure 6-28. This reflects the different career paths (e.g., more or less likelihood of having a postdoctoral fellowship)
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From page 165... ...
However, since male and female faculty differ in average career age and type of institution, it is essential to take these factors into account when comparing the proportion who are tenured. This is done by using logit analysis to predict the proportion of scientists and engineers with tenure after adjusting simultaneously for characteristics such as field, career year, sex, and type of employing institution.19 To summarize our results, we look at the adjusted proportions of men and women predicted to have tenure in the 10th year after the Ph.D., assuming that all other variables are at the mean.
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From page 166... ...
Differences of nearly 10 points remain in engineering, mathematics, and the social/behavioral sciences. Note, however, that the figures for 1979 1989 1995 25 Percent of Men - Percent of Women 20 15 10 5 0 Research 1 Medical Research 2 Doctoral Master's Baccalaureate FIGURE 6-30 Difference between men and women in adjusted proportions with tenure, by Carnegie type of institution and year of survey.
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From page 167... ...
and illustrates the recommendation of a female faculty member interviewed by Cole and Zuckerman (1987) : "My ideal scenario is to get a tenured position, and then have a child or two." Comparing those who
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From page 168... ...
We can gain some insights into this possibility by examining scientists who responded to both the 1979 and 1989 SDR or both the 1989 and 1995 surveys.20 Using these data, Table 6-6 shows changes from tenure-track positions in 1979 to positions in 1989 and from 1989 to 1995. We restricted 20There were 1,640 women and 4,062 men with academic positions in 1979 who were in the 1989 SDR; there were 1,217 women and 4,326 men who were in academia in 1989 who were in the 1995 SDR.
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From page 169... ...
During the 6 years from 1989 to 1995, women were 2 points more likely to move from faculty positions to off-track positions, and 7 points less likely to gain tenure. Note, however, that in both periods women were slightly younger than men, which may account for some of the observed gender differences.
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From page 170... ...
The right hand set of bars show gender differences in adjusted proportions after controlling for age and field; the differences for other types of institutions also control for the Carnegie type of institution in which a person was working. The adjusted differences are substantially smaller than the observed differences.
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From page 171... ...
Before concluding that there has been little progress in rank advancement for women during the past 18 years, it is essential to keep in mind that academic rank, like tenure, is highly dependent upon career age. Controlling for differences in the age structures for male and female faculty shows that there has been limited progress for women in becoming full professors.
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From page 172... ...
While our data do not allow us to determine the cause of the later dates of promotion, these changes are consistent with our earlier discussion of the changing academic labor market. Even though much of the greater representation of men in advanced ranks is due to the average female faculty member being younger, Figure 6-34 on pages 174-175 shows that at any given career age men are more likely to be in a higher rank.24 For example, in 1979 (Panel C)
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From page 173... ...
and in the twentieth year, 64 percent and 73 percent. As the career age for becoming a full professor increased from 1979 to 1995, there was some narrowing in the advantage for men, but some gender differences remained.
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From page 174... ...
174 FROM SCARCITY TO VISIBILITY Women Men 100 90 Percent - Associate Professor 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 0 5 10 15 20 25 Years Since Ph.D. in 1979 Panel A: Associate professors, 1979 Women Men 100 Percent - Associate Professor 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 0 5 10 15 20 25 Years Since Ph.D.
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From page 175... ...
THE ACADEMIC CAREER 175 Women Men 100 90 80 Percent - Full Professor 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 0 5 10 15 20 25 Years Since Ph.D. in 1979 Panel C: Full professors, 1979 Women Men 100 90 80 Percent - Full Professor 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 0 5 10 15 20 25 Years Since Ph.D.
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From page 176... ...
Still, even after controlling for gender differences in career age, field of employment, and type of institution, men continue to have an almost 10 percentage point advantage in being full professors. The improved representation of women occurred in most types of Observed Adjusted 30 Percent of Men - Percent of Women 25 20 15 10 5 0 1979 1989 1995 FIGURE 6-35 Difference between men and women in the observed proportion of full professors and the adjusted proportions controlling for field, career age, and Carnegie type of institution, by year of survey.
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From page 177... ...
Most importantly, because of its implications for training future generations of scientists and engineers, the 25 point over-representation of men among full professors in Research I institutions in 1979 was reduced to 8 points by 1995, and the 35 point advantage in Medical institutions in 1979 was eliminated. Surprisingly, given the historical presence of women in undergraduate institutions, the over-representation of men in Baccalaureate institutions returned to 15 points after dropping in 1989.
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From page 178... ...
For both men and women, these interruptions may also correspond to predoctoral research experience that makes postdoctoral fellowships less likely, thus speeding up the movement into faculty positions and eventually into more advanced academic ranks. Bayer and Astin (1975)
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From page 179... ...
found a positive effect of doctoral origins on promotion to full professor. Summary on Academic Rank Many studies across many fields at different times using a myriad of control variables found evidence of substantial gender differences in academic rank (Ahern and Scott 1981; Astin and Bayer 1979; Cole 1979; Hurlbert and Rosenfeld 1992; Long, Allison and McGinnis 1993; Perrucci, O'Flaherty and Marshall 1983; Rosenfeld and Jones 1986, 1987; Sonnert 1990; Szafran 1984)
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From page 180... ...
While our data are inadequate for a full analysis of factors determining gender differences in scientific productivity, we can provide some information that helps us to explain why the overall rate of productivity is greater for men than women. Past research has examined a large number of factors that may be determining the lesser productivity of women.
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From page 181... ...
, the increasing entry of women into faculty positions in all types of institutions should lead to future decreases in gender differences in scientific productivity. Still, to the extent that differences in employment persist, differences in productivity can be expected to continue, albeit to a lesser degree.
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From page 182... ...
Figure 6-39 displays the percent of academic scientists and engineers who are women for various employment statuses within academia. Panel A shows the results for those employed in Research I universities; Panel B presents the results for all non-Research I institutions combined; and Panel C plots the difference in the percent female in non-Research I universities compared to Research I institutions, where positive values indicate a greater presence of women in non-Research institutions.
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From page 183... ...
THE ACADEMIC CAREER 183 1979 1989 1995 50 45 Research 1: Percent Female 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 FT Academic Off Track On Track Untenured Tenured Assistant Associate Full Professor Professor Professor Panel A: Percent women in Research I institutions 1979 1989 1995 50 45 Non-Research 1: Percent Female 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 FT Academic Off Track On Track Untenured Tenured Assistant Associate Full Professor Professor Professor Panel B: Percent women in non-Research I institutions FIGURE 6-39 Percent of academic scientists who are women, by type of institutions, type of jobs, and year of survey. (Continued)
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From page 184... ...
In all fields, women made up a substantially larger proportion of the academic labor force in 1995 than in 1973. Large field differences persist, with women found least frequently in engineering and most often in the life sciences and the social/behavioral sciences.
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From page 185... ...
THE ACADEMIC CAREER 185 1979 1989 1995 50 Engineering: Percent Female 40 30 20 10 0 Full Time Off Track On Track Untenured Tenured Assistant Associate Full Academic Professor Professor Professor Panel A: Engineering 1979 1989 1995 50 Methematics: Percent Female 40 30 20 10 0 Full Time Off Track On Track Untenured Tenured Assistant Associate Full Academic Professor Professor Professor Panel B: Mathematics 1979 1989 1995 Physical Sciences: Percent Female 50 40 30 20 10 0 Full Time Off Track On Track Untenured Tenured Assistant Associate Full Academic Professor Professor Professor Panel C: Physical sciences FIGURE 6-40 Percent of scientists in given types of positions who are female, by field and year of survey. NOTE: See Appendix Table D-11 for further details.
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From page 186... ...
This accounts for a substantial amount of the greater representation of men among those with tenure and those with the rank of full professor. However, controls for gender differences in age and field do not eliminate the greater presence of men among those on the tenure track, with tenure, or promoted to full professor.
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