UNH President's Commission on the Status of Women
Report on the Status of Women
Profile of Women Faculty at UNH
during the 1993-94 Academic Year
- ONLY 28.5% (174) of the full-time tenure and tenure-track faculty are
women.
- ONLY 2.8% (11) of all faculty women are women of color.
- FULLY 60.5% (140) of all faculty women are part-time.
- Twenty-one (9.8%) of the full professors are women, an increase over
1992-93 (14 or 6.8%), but still a significantly small proportion in comparison
to men.
- Significantly fewer women were hired in tenure track positions (only
3 out of 16) than in previous years.
- Fewer women were promoted and or tenured in the last year than in the previous year.
Full-Time Tenured and Tenure-Track Faculty 1993-94*
*Excludes 6 instructors (3 men, 3 women).
Composition of Women Faculty at UNH
1. Women in 1993-94 comprise 36.7% of the total faculty, but only 29.2% of the full-time faculty (see Table 1), and 28.5% of the full-time tenured and tenure-track faculty. This represents an increase of less than 1% over the 1992-93 figures, and a slight increase from 27.8% to 28.5% in the percentage of women among full-time faculty. The number of minority women increased from 9 (2.8%) in 1992-93 to 11 (3.3%) in 1993-94 (see endnote 1).
Although the tenure and tenure-track numbers represent an increase of 12.2% percentage points over the 1980-81 figures, when women made up 17.0% of the tenure and tenure-track faculty, women are still far from having achieved appropriate gender balance on the faculty, given that:
a.Nationally, women received 33.9% of all doctorates granted between 1980-89; and 37.0% of all doctorates granted in 1992 (see Table 5 & endnote 2).
b.More than half (55.4%) of the UNH student body is now women.
2.The proportional representation of women faculty across ranks and disciplines is still highly imbalanced.
a. Among full-time instructional faculty, in 1993-94 women comprise 10.1% of the full professors; 32.6% of associate professors and 48.1% of assistant professors. Only the last meets the desired goal of proportional representation. While this represents some progress over the 1980-81 figures, UNH still has fewer women in the full professor category than the national average of 11.3% for doctoral-level universities (Table 3), and far fewer than the 18.2% for all categories of colleges together (see endnote 3). This suggests the need for more direct remedial action. For example, the university should hire additional women at the full professor level, rather than waiting for women to work their way up through the ranks.
b.Women are somewhat disproportionately represented in temporary or less-than-full-time positions, with 39.6% of all women faculty being part-time compared with only 15.3% of male faculty (see Table 2). Women constitute 46.7% of the full-time teaching staff (see Table 1) and 60.5% of the part-time faculty in non-tenured and non-tenure track teaching positions (see Table 1 and endnote 4) The latter represents an increase of 5 percentage points over last year's figures.
TABLE 1: FACULTY COMPOSITION FALL 1993-94 *
TABLE 2: PERCENTAGES OF PART-TIME FACULTY Fall 1993
TABLE 3: WOMEN AS A PERCENTAGE OF EACH FACULTY RANK
TABLE 4: DISTRIBUTION OF WOMEN FACULTY ACROSS RANKS
UNH Instructional Faculty 93-94* Full-Time Tenured/Tenure-Track Faculty
Source: UNH, Institutional Research.
c. Women faculty are also underrepresented on a college by college basis, except in the School of Health and Human Services. In absolute terms, women faculty are:
Non-existent in Earth and Ocean Sciences (EOS).
Minimally represented in the following colleges:
10.6% in the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences (CEPS);
15.2% in the College of Life Sciences and Agriculture (COLSA); and
15.4% in the Thompson School of Applied Science (TSAS).
Moderately represented:
27.3% in the Whittemore School of Business and Economics (WSBE);
43.1% in the College of Liberal Arts (COLA); and
52.9% at the University of New Hampshire-Manchester (UNHM).
And strongly represented:
64.5% in the School of Health and Human Services (SHHS).
In part these figures reflect variations in the number of women going into different fields, but even when compared with the recent number of Ph.D.'s granted in these areas nation-wide, women faculty are underrepresented in every college but the School of Health and Human Services, as can be seen by the figures in Table 5. There has been some slight improvement over 1992-93. However, that women are underrepresented in the College of Life Sciences and Agriculture remains disturbing. Although women are being awarded more than 32% of the Ph.D.s granted in relevant fields, they constitute only 15.2% of the COLSA faculty.
d. If student-faculty ratios by gender are considered, men fare much better than women students at UNH, as the figures in Table 6 demonstrate. From this table, one notes the following:
- Overall, the same-sex undergraduate student/faculty ratio is better for men than for women by a factor of 2.4.
- The worst situation is in the College of Life Sciences and Agriculture, where: The same-sex student/teacher ratio (male students to male faculty) is 7.7 times better for men than for women, despite the fact that women make up the majority of the student body (57.8% of the Full-Time Equivalency (FTE) students). However, this ratio is an improvement over the comparable 1992-93 figure of 8 (see endnote 7).
- The best same-sex student/faculty ratios are found in the College of Liberal Arts and the School of Health and Human Services (where women make up 60.5% and 81.3% respectively of the FTE students), but even here the ratio is twice as good for men as it is for women.
TABLE 5: FEMALE UNH FACULTY COMPARED WITH US PH.D.'S
* Tenure-Track includes both tenured faculty and those in tenure lines.
**Source: Doctorate Records File of the National Research Council. Reported in Professional Women and Minorities: A Total Human Resource Data Compendium, 10th Ed. COPISAT (Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology) 1992, p. 51.
***Source: NSF/NIH/USED/NEH/USDA/NRC Survey of Earned Doctorates. In COPISAT 1994, p. 47.
ÝCount differs slightly from Table 1 because of some individuals having left the University or changed to a part-time position in the course of the year.
TABLE 6A: GENDER COMPOSITION OF UNH STUDENTS AND SAME SEX UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT/FACULTY RATIOS BY COLLEGE Fall 1993
TABLE 6B: GENDER COMPOSITION AND UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT/ FACULTY RATIOS OF UNH-MANCHESTER STUDENTS Fall 1993
At a time when the importance of having women faculty to provide role models for women students is increasingly recognized, the underrepresentation of female faculty in all colleges, even those with predominantly female student populations, is particularly troublesome and deserving of remedial action.
Compensation
1. In comparing median male and female salaries in 1993-94, one finds that:5,6
a.Women's median salaries in each rank fall short of men's by varying amounts.7
b.On a college by college basis, women faculty are either absent or paid significantly less than men in half of the 22 rank/college (see endnote 8) categories as follows:
- Women's median salaries are at least $1000 less than men's in 8 categories;
2 of the 22 categories had no female faculty at all.
- Women's median salaries are at least $1000 more than men's in 3 categories:
2 in WSBE and 1 in CEPS.
- Male/female median salaries are within $1000 of each other in 3 categories:
women paid more in 2 categories and men in 1.
(An additional 5 categories had only one woman faculty member, a number too small to make valid comparisons between women's and men's salaries.)
Recruitment, Retention (& Career Advancement)
1. Of the 16 tenure-track faculty hired for 1993-94, only 3 (19%) were women.9 This percentage represents a dramatic drop from previous years when women made up 57% of the 28 newly hired faculty in 1991-92 and 58% in 1990-91. One has to go back to 1985-86 to find a lower percentage of women as new hires to tenure-track positions (See Table 9).
2. As for retention and promotion, fewer women proportionally and absolutely were promoted and tenured last year than in the previous year (see Table 7), as indicated below:
a. In 1993-94, 17 women and 29 men were promoted:
Five women were promoted to Full Professor (compared with 13 men).
Twelve women were tenured and promoted to Associate Professor (including 1 librarian) as compared with 16 men.
b. Proportional to the population in rank, this meant that:
- The women promoted to Full Professor represented 5.8% of the female Associate Professors in rank (men represented 7.3% of males).
- The women tenured and promoted to Associate rank represented 18.8% of the female Assistant Professors in rank (men represented 23.2% of the males).
c. Promotions for the non-instructional faculty were as follows:
In 1993-94, four women and nine men among the non-instructional faculty were promoted:
- One man to Research Associate.
- Two men and eight women to Extension Educator.
- One woman to Associate Extension Educator.
TABLE 7: FACULTY* PROMOTIONS BY RANK: 1981-94
* Does not include research faculty or extension educators.
Source: UNH: Institutional Research and Office of Vice-President for Academic Affairs.
3. As for attrition, 15 men and 8 women left the University. Faculty attrition rates from 1985 through 1994 reveal that men and women leave UNH at fluctuating, but generally comparable, rates. A disturbing and consistent finding is the high percent of women who leave UNH for reasons unknown. In 1981, the Women's Commission conducted a first study of faculty retention. This year, a second, exploratory study was done to investigate the reasons behind the attrition of women faculty. (see endnote 10)
The results of the second study suggest that "push" factors related to unsatisfactory work conditions were the primary reason for resignation for almost all of the women. "Pull" factors, tempting or necessary alternatives to their positions such as other jobs or family responsibilities, were important in some women's decisions to leave. However, alternatives were usually sought or considered only after the "push" factors of negative work environments became intolerable.(see endnote 10)
The interviews clearly show that there is no one cause of attrition for women faculty. Reasons for resignation vary considerably. Furthermore, almost all of the women saw not just one but a number of factors as contributing to their decisions to resign. But as stated earlier, "push" factors stand out as the primary cause of attrition. Some of the most common reasons for resignation related to the work environment include:
- SALARY: Low salaries resulted in women feeling "unappreciated".
- JOB RESPONSIBILITIES: Unclear, unjust, and conflicting job responsibilities, especially around teaching and research, created "oppressive" and unsatisfactory work environments.
- RESOURCE SUPPORT: Limited availability of equipment, library materials, graduate student assistance, and travel funds worked as barriers to research.
- COLLEAGUE SUPPORT: The unwillingness of colleagues to share advice and guidance and an incompatibility of research interests served as additional barriers to successful work. Male networks within departments worked to exclude women from social events and activities. The results for women were feelings of isolation and inequality, exclusion from informal decision making processes, and the inability to object to decisions made by male colleagues.
- COMBINING WORK AND FAMILY RESPONSIBILITIES: All of the women who had children under school age described difficulty in combining work and family responsibilities. Problems included finding adequate and affordable day care and receiving support and flexibility from departments when planning child care arrangements and maternity leave.
This exploratory study indicates that there are important changes to be made in the work environment at UNH in order to retain women faculty. Additional data need to be collected in order to determine how best to eliminate "push" factors. The establishment of an in-depth exit interview process is suggested as a means of continually gathering accurate and complete data on faculty attrition.
TABLE 8: GENDER DISTRIBUTION OF FACULTY ATTRITION
B. REASONS FOR LEAVING (1985 - 1994)
Source: UNH, Institutional Research & Office of the Vice-President for Academic Affairs.
TABLE 9: TENURE AND TENURE TRACK FACULTY NEW HIRES 1980-1994
ENDNOTES
1. UNH, Institutional Research. The 11 include 7 Asians and 2 Hispanic among full-time faculty, and 2 Hispanics among part-time faculty.
2. Professional Women and Minorities: A Total Human Resource Data Compendium, 11th Ed., Washington, D.C.: Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology (COPISAT) 1994, p. 47.
3. Academe, March-April 1994, Table 14, p.25.
4. While some women may choose this option in order to accommodate family or other responsibilities, most of the part-time faculty would prefer to be teaching in a full-time, permanent capacity.
5. UNH, Institutional Research. Total faculty counts differ slightly from Table I because a few professors left the University or changed to part-time status during the course of the academic year.
6. Because of the freeze on faculty salaries during the 1993-94 year, performing a regression analysis to compare the mean residual difference for women and men of comparable rank and qualifications would have little value. The difference of $852 calculated from 1992-93 data still stands as a useful comparison.
7. The difference of $10,000 at the Full Professor level may be partially due to the large number of new women promoted to this rank in the last year compared with male professors in rank for more years. However, the difference at the Associate Professor level is about the same as it was last year. The difference at the Assistant Professor level has dropped from last year's figure of $1,240, but this may happen because women tend to stay longer in this rank than men.
8. The rankings (Assist. Prof, Associate Prof, and Full Prof) across 8 college units ( COLSA, COLA,CEPS, WSBE, SHHS, UNH-M, EOS and TSAS) creates a total of 24 rank/college categories. However, since there are no Assistant Professors in EOS and no Full Professors at UNH-M, this reduces the total numbers of occupied rank/college categories to 22.
9. UNH, Institutional Research.
10. Funding for this study was provided by the Institute for Policy and Social Science Research at the University of New Hampshire. For more information regarding methodology, results, conclusions, and policy suggestions, please contact the UNH President's Commission on the Status of Women for a copy of the full report.
11. Data was collected through semi-structured, in-depth interviews with women faculty who resigned from UNH between 1985 and 1993. A complete list of 33 names of the women who left for reasons other than retirement was obtained from the Office of Institutional Research. A subset of 12 names were selected to be interviewed for the study. In order to ensure confidentiality, a statistically justifiable number of names were dropped from the complete list. Only the remaining subsample was used in the study. After refusals, the final sample consisted of 12 , over a third of the total number of women who resigned from UNH since 1985. Information regarding work experiences at UNH and reasons for leaving were gathered through semi-structured phone and face-to-face interviews.
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