Status of Women Faculty report released

The Committee on the Status of Women Faculty at Caltech, commissioned in 1999 to investigate possible gender inequities among faculty, issued its long-awaited findings in a 31-page report last month.

Chaired by Professor of Astronomy Anneila Sargent, the committee of eight female and five male faculty interviewed all 29 female professors who were at Caltech during 1999–2000. The CSWFC also spoke with a group of male professors, each of whom was considered a peer of a female professor, taking into account that issues that arose might be common to both women and men or specific to a particular field or division.

The survey’s “most striking” finding, as summarized by the committee, was that “female faculty are markedly more dissatisfied than their male peers with many aspects of Caltech.” Notably, although male faculty had many of the same complaints as females, they still felt satisfied with their overall situation. The committee surmised that with the very low proportion of women on the faculty (11%) and without female representation in higher administration, “these findings suggest that it is quite reasonable for female faculty to attribute at least some adverse professional experiences to unequal treatment of men and women.”

The CSWFC did not, however, reach any firm conclusions regarding gender disparities in salary, and office and laboratory space allocation. Both women and men voiced dissatisfaction with their space allocation, and due to varying practices among Caltech’s six academic divisions and to the low number of women, no general pattern could be established. A number of statistical salary analyses showed that female faculty members receive less pay on average than male. Again, however, partly due to the small number of women, “it can be argued that the results are statistically not significant,” the report states.

The committee concluded that “to achieve its full potential, Caltech needs to hire more women faculty, be more proactive in mentoring its junior faculty, and make itself friendlier to the working family.” It listed seven recommendations to achieve those goals, including increasing the proportion of female faculty to 25% in the next 10 years; monitoring salaries to ensure equity, and remedying any past or current disparities; implementing mentoring programs for junior faculty; “aggressively pursuing” improvements in the working environment to benefit all faculty and help retain women, such as increasing the fraction of upper-level female administrators and proactively awarding maternity and paternity leave; and implementing a fundraising campaign centered on recruiting female faculty and students in science and engineering.

Marianne Bronner-Fraser, Ruddock Professor of Biology and Caltech’s first female faculty chair, said, “The committee did a wonderful job. This report is unique in that (1) it looks at both women’s and men’s issues within the Caltech community, and (2) it comes up with concrete and feasible recommendations that can be used as a model to improve the quality of the Caltech environment.”
Sargent said, “Overall, response to the survey has been very positive. The report was presented to the Faculty Board this month, and it appeared the reaction was favorable. The president, provost, and division chairs were supportive of the recommendations, especially the hiring goal.”
She noted a contrast from the widely publicized 1999 MIT study that found patterns of gender discrimination and that inspired the Institute survey. “The difference is that MIT went in believing that inequities existed. The Caltech report is more exploratory.”

Negative reaction to the report has been minimal, Sargent said. A few are concerned, for example, that if women are hired with specially raised funds, they might be stigmatized or seen as tokens. She acknowledged the validity of such concerns, noting the importance of careful implementation of proposed changes.

One letter to the Pasadena Star-News criticized “dissatisfied Caltech women” for seeking “quotas,” saying it would lower teaching standards. To such attitudes, Sargent said, “I think someone just didn’t understand the academic environment. We’re not trying to set a quota. But the fact is that we’re excluding a large percentage of the population who could be doing good work.” Bronner-Fraser summed up, “The author completely misinterpreted our intent. Our goal is to attract and recruit the very best applicants to Caltech. Currently, we may be losing some excellent individuals to our peer institutions. In fact, the fear is that some women may not apply to Caltech due solely to the fact that our gender balance is low.

“By increasing the numbers of women and minority professors at Caltech, we will create a positive atmosphere not only for the faculty but also for mentoring the next generation. This in turn will increase the numbers of excellent potential candidates for the future.”

The full report can be downloaded from Caltech’s Diversity Web site at http://diversity.caltech.edu/.
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