Excellence Through Diversity
Report of the Council on Faculty Diversity and Inclusion 2008
Representation of Women in Leadership Positions1
Table 5 shows the percentage of females at the highest levels of leadership at the University and college level in the 2006—2007 academic year. The overall female representation among faculty who held positions of Dean and department chair on the CRC (29%) was greater than the percentage of female tenured faculty at the Associate and Full Professor level (22%). However, there are several colleges (COM, ENG, CAS) in which females have been significantly underrepresented in leadership positions, compared to the representation of females among the senior faculty in these schools. The representation of female department chairs on the Medical Campus is also lower than the representation of females among the senior faculty in the Medical Campus schools.
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.
There has been a considerable increase in female representation at the college and University level since 2005. Six of the nine Deans who have been hired since 2005 are female, so that the percentage of female deans is now 41%. In addition, females currently comprise 23% of the University Trustees and 28% of the University Overseers. A female Chief Investment Officer has been added to the Administrative staff.
