VI. Time at Rank
Fig. 6-C Associate Professors (Male vs. Female) who remain
at this rank for an extended period of time
Overview
We looked at the numbers of current Associate Professors, male and female, who were hired as Assistant Professor vs. Associate Professor with varying times at rank as (1) Associate Professor, and (2) Assistant Professor and Associate Professor combined. One concern is the difference in the time that it takes for men and women to achieve tenure, and then to be promoted to the rank of Full Professor. Such data have been gathered previously (by the BU Faculty Council Committee on Equity and Inclusion, and in conjunction with the BU Council for Faculty Diversity and Inclusion) for faculty members who have been granted tenure and/or promotion (i.e., how long did it take?). Previous analyses would suggest that further investigation of gender differences is warranted. [see note 1] However, no such analysis has been attempted here (nor did we gather the data that would have allowed us to do such an analysis). This is an issue that should perhaps be pursued in the future.
Females vs. Males who have been at the rank of Associate Professor for longer than 6 yearsThe data presented here concern Associate Professors who have not been promoted to the rank of full professor, and how long it has been since such individuals were hired (as either Assistant or Associate Professors) and promoted to their current rank. Figure 6-C illustrates the percentage of female and male Associate Professors who were hired as Assistant Professors but who have now been at their current rank for varying periods of time. Cornell’s Advance report [see note 2] defines faculty who were hired at the rank of Assistant Professor and have been in rank as Associate Professor for 6-11 years as “recently stalled,” and those who have been in rank or for 12 or more years to be “long-term stalled.” By those definitions, 36.4% of the “recently stalled” Associate Professors in CAS Natural Sciences as of AY 2010-11 (4 out of 11) are female, as are 22.2% (2 out of 9) of the “long-term stalled” Natural Sciences Associate Professors. These percentages are greater than the 17.5% of all the tenured and tenure-track Associate Professors hired as Assistant Professors who are female in CAS Natural Science departments.
Of the Associate Professors hired as Assistant Professors in CAS Natural Sciences, 6 of the 7 females (=85.7%) have been at this rank for 6 years or longer, whereas this is the case for only 42.4% of their male counterparts. In the Social Sciences, 60% of the females (9/15) but only 40% of the males (8/20) fall into this category. In the Humanities, however, the percentage of males who have been Associate Professors for 6 years or longer is almost twice as high as the percentage of females: 8/21 of the females (=38.1%) and 16/21 of the males (=72.7%). In ENG, 33.3% of the 6 female Associate Professors and 50.7% of the 75 male Professors are in this category.
It is, however, extremely difficult to interpret these data without knowing how many of those males and females hired as Assistant Professors within these time ranges have already been promoted, and how many have left the university. Cohort analyses would be very revealing and would provide important insights into the tenure and promotion paths for males and females, but we did not have access to the data that would have been required.
Notes
[1] For example, data from AY 2008 showed that females in the CAS Natural Sciences take, on average, 14.1 years combined to receive tenure (7.4 years) and then promotion (6.7 years), as compared with men, who take two years less (5.8 years to tenure, 6.3 years to promotion).
[2] See http://advance.cornell.edu/documents/Year%20End%20Report%20Y3web.pdf.
Fig. 6-C Associate Professors (Male vs. Female) who remain at this
rank for an extended period of time
Return to the main page for this Web report on the Status of Women in the Natural Sciences and Engineering at Boston University, Summer 2012 or jump to section:
<1> Female Representation among Tenured and Tenure-track Faculty: 1997 and 2007-2011
<2> Female Representation by Tenure Status
<3> Hiring Patterns
<4> Attrition
<5> Success in Tenure and Promotion
<6> Time at Rank
<7> Salaries
<8> Leadership Positions, 2010-11
<Conclusions>
