Enhancing Gender Equity in Academia

Abstract

Women are underrepresented in U.S. tenure-track faculty positions, and institutional interventions are key to creating greater gender equality and accessing women's potential. This study examines the effectiveness of one "transformational" intervention, the ADVANCE Institutional Transformation initiative, implemented at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), in 2001. We compare data on women's representation in faculty positions before and during the UCI ADVANCE Program (1993)(1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009) to that of seven other campuses in the University of California system, where no initiatives of this scale were implemented. Using descriptive figures, T tests, and regression analyses, we find that UCI had a higher percentage of women faculty and hired a greater percentage of women during ADVANCE years, but did not retain women at a greater rate. We describe the UCI ADVANCE program and its structure, including its "Equity Advisors," who we suggest have been important in improving women's representation among faculty at UCI.In 2001, UCI received a National Science Foundation (NSF) Institutional Transformation grant, aimed at increasing women's representation among tenure-track faculty in the STEM disciplines (sciences, technology, engineering, and math). Upon receipt of the grant, the UCI administration extended its coverage beyond the STEM disciplines to the entire campus.Our goal is to assess the effectiveness of this particular program in improving women's representation in faculty positions. Because UCI is embedded in the 10-campus University of California (UC) system, and was the only UC campus to receive the intervention during this period, the case of UCI gives us unique leverage in understanding how a major institutional intervention impacts women's faculty representation. Comparing women faculty representation over time (prior and during ADVANCE periods) and across the UC campuses, we seek to identify how the presence of the UCI ADVANCE Program relates to changes in women's faculty representation, hiring, and retention.Other studies have found that ADVANCE awards correlate with an increase in women faculty (Bilimoria and Liang 2012). However, these studies are limited because most universities have increased women's representation in recent years. This study is unique in that it compares a university with the ADVANCE award to similarly situated universities without the award. Although our study is limited to an assessment of this one program, it is relevant to the broader effort to improve women's representation in higher education in that it identifies how and why the program enacted change.Institutional interventions are designed to reduce inequalities (Kalev, Dobbin, and Kelly 2006). The ADVANCE project aims to introduce "alterations in the core elements of the institution: authority, goals, practices, and policies" (Fox 2008:83), thereby fortifying women's presence and advancement in the higher-paying STEM disciplines, and becau...

STEM in Higher Education: Analysis of Gendered Themes Across Pacific Northwest Institutional Policies

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Women’s experiences of supervision and professional development.

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Perceived Subtle Gender Bias Index: Development and Validation for Use in Academia

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