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Women Underrepresented on Science Faculties
More women are earning doctorates in science and engineering, but a survey of science and engineering faculties released in January found that women remain scarce in tenured or tenure-track positions. The survey was conducted by Donna Nelson, a chemistry professor at the University of Oklahoma, who became curious about the recruitment of female professors after observing that she and two other professors were the only women appointed in her department over a twenty-one-year span.
Nelson and her co-investigator, undergraduate Diana Rogers, surveyed science departments at the top fifty universities (defined as those with the biggest research budgets in fourteen different scientific disciplines). They found that only 3 to 15 percent of full professors in the engineering and science departments of those universities were women. "It is likely that a woman could get a bachelor of science degree without being taught by a female professor in her discipline," says Nelson.
The study found that even in departments where female students are the majority, such as psychology, sociology, and the biological sciences, there are considerably more male faculty members. For example, women make up 76.5 percent of psychology students, but only 33.5 percent of psychology professors. In programs with an even distribution of male and female students, there are even fewer female faculty members; 48 percent of math students are women, for example, compared with only 8 percent of math professors. Women were least likely to be physics teachers, making up just 6.6 percent of physics faculties.
The study notes that while engineering faculties still have relatively few women, they have made the most progress in terms of increased female hiring. The number of women receiving doctorates in chemical, civil, electrical, and mechanical engineering increased by at least 50 percent during the decade ending in 2002; there is a close match between the share of PhDs earned by women and the proportion of assistant professors who are women.
The study also found a dearth of minority women professors in science departments. For example, in computer science departments at the top fifty institutions, there were no African American, Hispanic, or Native American tenured or tenure-track women faculty. In the physical science and engineering disciplines, with the exception of one African American astronomy professor, there were no female African American or Native American "full" professors. Only nineteen African American women, thirty-three Hispanic women, and one American Indian woman were teaching in any capacity. Female minorities fared better on the faculties of social science and biological science departments, where the study found ninety-four black women faculty members, fifty-three Hispanic women, and three American Indian women. Still, if a student is a woman of color, "it is probable she will earn her PhD without ever seeing a minority female professor in her field," the study notes.
Nelson and Rogers cite several reasons for women's underrepresentation in science, including a lack of female mentors and role models and the perception among women graduate students that female professors are not treated fairly and equally. The study also notes that in the disciplines studied, qualified female candidates exist but are not achieving assistant professorships. While the researchers could not determine "whether hiring practices at the top universities actively discriminate" against female employees, they say that "the numbers clearly indicate a grave national problem."
"There is something that is discouraging women from applying for these jobs," says Nelson. "We need to find out what it is. If significant progress is to be made, new and totally different approaches to solving problems facing women and minority faculty will be needed."
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