Female professors are underrepresented in certain fields of academic study, and are set back when they take time off for their family
Since 2001 in Canada, female students have outnumbered male students, according to Statistics Canada. But how are the women who teach these students, our professors, faring in university representation?
“While many women become associate professors, there is a dramatic drop-off in the advancement of women to full professor in comparison to men,” says Lorna Marsden, professor emeritus and former York president of 10 years.
Marsden chaired an expert panel in the fall on women’s research careers for the Council of Canadian Academies, and issued a report entitled Strengthening Canada’s Research Capacity: the Gender Dimension.
“We were able to demonstrate that time will not break down that glass ceiling,” she says. “We need changes in public policy, university policy, and behaviour among individuals.”
The Canadian Association of University Teachers agrees. A recent statement on their website said, “Even though there have been tremendous gains since the first International Women’s Day in 1911, systemic forms of discrimination still leave women more susceptible to violence and exploitation.”
The CAUT says changes to labour and trade union laws, a lack of a national child care plan, and endemic government cuts to women’s programs, among others, contribute to gender discrimination for university teachers.
Marsden recognizes there are gender differences across fields of study, but says women who do enter male-dominated fields tend to find more success than women in other fields.
“It is still true that women are more likely to be in the humanities and social sciences and men more likely to be in math, science, and engineering…[But] one of the most interesting of our findings is that while a very small number of women go into math, physical sciences, and engineering, those who get a degree in those fields are more likely to succeed than women in other fields.”
Marsden says she “can’t explain it.”
Also promising, says Marsden, is the fact that women tend to get tenure if they go after it, and are more likely to be called on for administrative positions in departments and faculties.
However, societal and biological expectations can be barriers for women, because although gender roles in the home have become more flexible, women are still expected to become mothers and primary caregivers.
“Parenting and holding a successful academic career calls for a lot of support for both women and men—and at this moment in history, it is more likely to fall to the mother to drop out of her career to bring up children, although one hears great accounts of fathers taking on those responsibilities,” notes Marsden.
York anthropology professor Leslie Jermyn agrees.
“While university professors have access to great parental and pregnancy provisions, it is usually the women who are taking these leaves,” says Jermyn. “These are chunks of time [when] they are not able to continue to advance their careers; they often fall behind male faculty hired at the same time and the same salary.”
“As well, we still see fewer women in certain disciplines, [like] the hard sciences [and] engineering, because the expectations placed on students and professiors in these fields still don’t factor in women’s continued additional burden for child care in the Canadian family.”
She suggests policy steps should be taken to balance the problem.
“If we want full equality, we have to start thinking about mandatory parental leaves for men so that childcare is truly a shared responsibility,” she says.
Marsden remains hopeful that women will advance in academia, and has personally observed trends that support this.
“I remember when I started teaching university, about 1970, there were hardly any women in my sociology classes, and now, it’s the other way around,” she says. “A lot has changed in 43 years, much of it in the direction of greater gender equality, but there’s a long way to go.”
Joanna Beaton, Contributor
Vanessa Del Carpio, Women’s Supplement Coordinator
