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ERIC Number: EJ720385
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2005
Pages: 8
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0024-1822
EISSN: N/A
Is There a Global Warming Toward Women in Academia?
Hult, Christine; Callister, Ronda; Sullivan, Kim
Liberal Education, v91 n3 p50-57 Sum-Fall 2005
Substantially different types of universities are finding similar sources of dissatisfaction among their women faculty in the sciences and engineering. A study done in 2001 found that women faculty in Science, Engineering, and Technology (SET) colleges held fewer high-ranking posts than men, were less likely to be full professors, and were more likely to be assistant professors. This paper describes a recent survey of women faculty conducted at Utah State University (USU) to gain insights into their job satisfaction. In order to allow for a comparison between male and female faculty members, 40 male faculty were also surveyed. Each faculty member was asked three questions: (1) What factors at USU contributed to your career success and job satisfaction? (2) What factors at USU were obstacles to success or sources of job dissatisfaction? and (3) What changes would you like to see at USU to improve the recruitment and retention of faculty? Findings indicated significant gender differences in answers to the question regarding obstacles to success and sources of dissatisfaction. Women faculty members were more likely to report negative interactions with colleagues; negative experiences with the process of evaluation, promotion, and tenure; difficulty balancing work and family life; and overwhelming workloads. The authors provide several recommendations that may help to improve the climate for women faculty in SET colleges: (1) Provide support or training for department chairs so that they can address problems within their departments; (2) Increase the transparency of processes; (3) Make improvements in work-life issues; (4) Evaluate committee appointments; (5) Create and publicize dual-career policies; and (6) Improve research collaborations. (Contains 1 endnote.)
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Utah
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A