Excellence Through Diversity
Report of the Council on Faculty Diversity and Inclusion 2008
Hiring, Promotion, Tenure, and Retention of Women (CRC only) 1
The data the Council received in the area of hiring and retention were limited to the Charles River Campus.2
Hiring
As noted above (Table 2), in the past three years there has been a significant increase in the percentage of new hires that were women. There has also been a significant change in the percentage of faculty hired with tenure that were women. From 1997 to 2005, 85 males and 15 females were hired with tenure. Being hired with tenure confers a large salary advantage. However, in the last three years a more equal number of males and females were hired with tenure. In 2006-2008, 7 males and 5 females were hired with tenure.
Promotion
Overall, on the Charles River Campus females in tenure-track positions have been promoted into tenure positions at a somewhat lower rate than males. For the cohorts of faculty hired from 1997 to 2002, 36% of females and 42% of males were promoted from tenure-track to tenured positions. However, females who underwent formal promotion and tenure reviews were as likely to receive tenure (Males=91.1%, Females=98.3%) and to be promoted to full Professor as were males. The average time to receive tenure was statistically significantly longer for females (.8 years) and the time to promotion to Professor was statistically significantly longer (2 years). However, it is important to note that the time to tenure and rank provided by the University are straight calculations from date of hire. They do not take into account leaves. Therefore, it is not possible to determine the extent to which these differences reflect the fact that women are more likely than men to take leaves.
Retention
In the period from 1997 to 2007, 36.4% of those with unmodified professorial titles on the Charles River Campus who left for reasons other than death or retirement were females, although females constituted only about 27% of the faculty holding unmodified professorial ranks as of 2007.
1Due to the small number of minorities it was not possible to break down the data by minority status.
2The only data available for the Medical Campus are those from an ad hoc committee on gender equity in the School of Public Health. This committee found that women experienced similar rates of promotion from Assistant to Associate Professor, but that the rate of promotion to full Professor was lower for women and the length of time for promotion to full Professor was longer.
