by John Reid
Daily Illini reporter
Though a recent study suggests that women professors are underrepresented on campus, University officials maintain that the school’s programs often dictate the gender differences.The Chancellor’s Committee on the Status of Women recently released a study that shows women are not equally represented at the University when compared to men. The committee, composed entirely of women, focused on the number and salaries of full, assistant and associate professors on campus.
“One of our committee members had read an article in a magazine that compared the representation of women at different universities, and they wondered how we would fair,” said Susan Greendorfer, chair of the committee. “What the study found was that even though representation has been improving, it is still very low.”
She said there were two major problems found in the study. First was the problem of underrepresentation of women in University faculty. According to findings, she said, students are four times less likely to have a female instructor during their time at the University.
This subtly creates a gender bias, she said.
“When students spend their time mostly around male instructors, they gain a kind of non-conscious gender bias,” she said. “Lack of exposure is not a reflection of quality.”
The study’s other major finding is in regard to salary gaps. Though the gaps are smaller at the associate and assistant professor levels, the salary gap between men and women at the full professor level is about 14.5 percent, Greendorfer said. Though lower than its high in 1989 at 15.4 percent, the difference has gone almost unchanged since a salary gap of 14.6 percent in 1993.
“Even though the gaps are smaller than they have been in the past, we still think they are a concern,” Greendorfer said.
The only undergraduate student on the committee said she thinks the study is “a really important report to be released.”
“There should not be as many gender issues as there are for an institute of higher learning,” said Evelina Bozek, junior in LAS.
One of four students on the committee, Bozek said she attended meetings and brought a student perspective to the committee.
“It’s very informative to see the position that the instructors of the University are in,” she said.
Greendorfer said she hopes the study will call to attention the underrepresentation of women at the University.
“Some universities are known as not being ‘women friendly,’ but we would want an institution of this stature to be looked at differently,” she said. “We hope the University recognizes there is a problem, and we would like to see the campus make a commitment to resolve it.”
In response to the study, a University spokeswoman said some of the University’s strongest programs attract more men than women.
“I think we are certainly not where we would want to be, but we have made progress and are continuing to,” said Robin Kaler, director of communications for the Office of Public Affairs. “Part of our concern, though, is that U of I is strong in engineering and business. Those are traditionally male-dominated fields.”
Kaler said comparisons to other universities might be flawed because of different schools’ strengths. Comparing the University’s male-oriented fields to universities that feature programs dominated by women is an unfair comparison, she said.
Greendorfer said the committee’s solution to the problem consists of two goals. One solution is to adopt a policy of aggressive hiring of women at every faculty level. The other is to assure women a “professional climate” with more support and equality at the University than in the past.
But Kaler said there are difficulties in achieving these goals.
“Efforts are being made, but any change done within depends on an amount of money to work with,” Kaler said. “One person’s priority always comes at the expense of someone else’s.”
Kaler said some female faculty groups had been left out of the report; however, Greendorfer assured they would be studied in upcoming research efforts.
“Future studies will focus on different groups: academic professionals, students and staff,” she said. “This study took a lot longer than we had anticipated, so we have no idea when these future studies will be conducted.”
