Study finds women underrepresented in some fields
December 4, 2007
The President's Advisory Committee on Women at the University of Washington (PACW) released their first Report on Women at the UW, which provides a statistical analysis of equal opportunity representation within the University community.
The report, released last week and available online, is a detailed description with percentages of women who work at or attend the UW. The study is divided into six different sections: students, staff, faculty and academic personnel, University administration, athletics and crime.
"We wanted to give a baseline of information on women faculty, staff and students here at the University," said Marcia Killien, chair at PACW and professor in the Department of Family and Child Nursing. "This is the first report we've ever done and we hope to do more in the future to review progress within the University."
The PACW's study covers statistical information on women at the UW for this academic year. PACW was able to receive all its information from the departments and programs within the University to obtain gender demographics. The study also includes gender statistics from UW Bothell and UW Tacoma.
The study notes that women are genuinely equitably represented as compared to men within the University as a whole, although certain departments have an over- or under-representation. In one extreme comparison, women hold 90 percent of the School of Nursing degrees, while women hold only 18 percent of the School of Engineering degrees.
Among the faculty, women comprise only 23 percent of professors and 47 percent of assistant professors. Within the University administration, women are much more underrepresented, occupying only 11 of 106 department chairs and eight of 18 deanships.
PACW has also been working with other organizations that are concerned about the inadequate representation of women within certain fields. Organizations such as the STEM Education Coalition and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are among the groups that are creating programs and policies to ensure that women are more represented in fields such as science, math and engineering.
"We will be working with various groups on campus this winter, like the Faculty Council for Women in Academia and the Faculty Senate, [as well as] others to discuss issues on women at UW and collaborate on future reports," Killien said.
[Reach reporter Ben Schock at news@thedaily.washington.edu.]
Comments
#1 Pascal
commented, onDecember 4, 2007 at 8:30 a.m.:
The title of this article is "Study finds women underrepresented in some fields," but it seems like the problem is actually disproportionate representation, with too few women in engineering and too few men in nursing, for example. The article adopts the underrepresentation angle, though, which is only half the story, and as a result presents some statistics rather bizarrely. For instance, women "only occupy 11 of 106 department chairs and eight of 18 deanships." Although the first ratio is bad, isn't the second, 8/18, just about right? The same goes for the previous statistic: 23 percent of professors (bad) vs. 47 percent of assistant professors (good), even though both are presented in a negative light. In sum, I think the emphasis of this article is misplaced.
#2 Kate
commented, onDecember 4, 2007 at 8:03 p.m.:
While I agree that the deanship statistics are promising and shouldn't be looked at as a hindrance, you should take another look at those professor numbers. Yes, 47% is near half, but what does the 47% describe? Assistant professors. The considerably more concerning number, 23%, is in the group that has much more power.
In this same vein, 11/106 chairs is pathetic and disgusting. Again, I point to the equal dean representation as something to be hopefully emulated in the other studied areas.
Also, your argument for the "angle" of underrepresentation in certain departments is a bit disingenuous. Nursing, engineering, hard sciences, etc are fields that have been gendered by our society. While the ultimate goal is to have equal gender representation in all fields, to complain about men's underrepresentation in a low paying, low respect (in our society, at least) job is a deflection of the problem.
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