By Elizabeth Ransom
Senior Staff Writer
There are only four female full faculty professors at Washington College- political science professor Dr. Melissa Deckman, dance instructor Karen Smith, English professor Dr. Kathryn Moncrief, and history professor Dr. Carol Wilson- compared to 14 male full professors, according to the “Meet the Faculty” page of the College website.
“Women are more likely to make (or expected to make) workplace sacrifices for children and home than men. While this is not absolute (plenty of men do do these things), in the grand scheme of things this tends to fall on the shoulders of mothers,” said Dr. Erin Anderson of the sociology department, who will teach a course called Gender and Work in the spring semester. According to recent sociological research by scholars such as Scott Coltrane, the seemingly antiquated disparity is still pervasive; women still spend more time than men dealing with household responsibilities. Childcare is a particularly important factor.
“If it is women who take maternity leave for a few weeks, a few months, or take a few years off to rear children, then they’re not likely to have the same reputation and accomplishments in the workplace that men, who seldom take such time for children, can accrue during this period,” said Dr. Anderson.
When asked whether gender is taken into consideration in the hiring process, Provost and Dean Emily Chamlee-Wright points to the following statement that appears in advertisements for faculty positions: “Washington College is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Women and minorities are especially encouraged to apply.” Additionally, the College has an Affirmative Action Plan, the details of which can be found on pp. 51-53 (Chapter IV, Section F) of the Washington College Faculty Handbook.
Dr. Anderson explains that part of the cause is generational. The gender disparity among older faculty is a vestige of a more sexist era; women now earn PhDs at least as often as men do, so the inequality does not exist among younger professors. In some disciplines, particularly in the humanities, in many social sciences, and in education, the number of women seeking tenure track jobs now exceeds the number of men.
“If you look around at the age distribution among the faculty, you’ll see that a significant number of female professors have been with the college 15 years or less. It typically takes 15 to 20 years in a faculty position before a professor can be considered for full professor status… More women have been hired in the past two decades as new faculty members at WC, as is true of institutions of higher education in general,” said Dr. Anderson.
There is no gender imbalance among associate and assistant professors. Last year the male-female ratio was 1.01/1 for full-time associate professors and 1.1/1 for full-time assistant professors, according to the 2011-2012 Washington College Fact Book.
One possible reason for the imbalance among full professors is specific to WC. The College adheres to the usual time frame for considering faculty for tenure; after seven years, a professor might be promoted to associate professor, but the professors themselves decide whether they want to be considered for promotion to full professor seven or eight years after that.
“As I understand it from colleagues who have been here longer than I have, there doesn’t seem to be many faculty members, women or men, who are especially eager to have themselves considered for promotion to full professor,” said Dr. Anderson.
According to the “Chronicle of Higher Education”, about 64 percent of the instructional faculty at four-year institutions in the U.S. is off the tenure track. And this rate has been growing over the past decade. At community colleges, it is higher, at 85 percent in 2010.
For students, the distinction between assistant, associate, and full professorship might not even be apparent.
“I’m neutral about the fact that there are only four full female professors on campus,” said Rachel Myers, a junior who’s majoring in history. “I’ve had at least one female teacher all three years I’ve been on campus, and would never think about treating them any different than a full professor. I don’t know how many full male professors there are though, my opinion may change pending more info.”