FACULTY FAULT LINES
But the intensification of efforts to hire and tenure women faculty is not without controversy, with some professors protesting the use of group preferences in faculty hires and promotions.
“What I understand by gender equality is that all persons should be treated equally,” Peretz Professor of Yiddish Literature Ruth R. Wisse wrote in an October e-mail. “[This] argues not for equal opportunity but for equal outcome.”
“I wouldn’t like to see a big type of push for one kind of person for one year,” says Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology Theda Skocpol, who emphasized that the University needs “a more sustained commitment to make sure that we’re recruiting the best people to our faculty regardless of gender and race.”
“The search process continues to be very rigorous…I think the possibility that standards will suddenly be lowered is very slight,” Ryan writes in an e-mail, addressing possible concerns that special attention to gender diversity would lower standards of merit and scholarship in tenure searches.
“Casting our net more widely for women and minority candidates will expand and strengthen, not weaken, the recruitment pool, in my opinion. No one is saying hire any woman,” Cohen writes in an e-mail. “Rather, we’re saying figure out the fields where women are doing cutting-edge and important work and make sure that you define positions with an eye to capturing that talent.”
The University’s active efforts to accommodate women faculty have also drawn criticism from faculty members.
Kenan Professor of Government Harvey C. Mansfield ’53 opposes the efforts of the University to minimize women’s choices between work and family, arguing that the University is presuming that women who want to take time off from work are “making a foolish or irresponsible choice.”
“I don’t think our measures should be directed away from the choice women might make to stay at home,” Mansfield says.
AMONG THE PACK
Studies suggest that the Harvard’s difficulties in tenuring and supporting female faculty mays be in line with nationwide trends.
According to a report released by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) in April 2005, the underrepresentation of women and differences in pay between men and women in university faculties are still pervasive, though the percentage of tenured female faculty nationwide has risen over the last two decades.
The report said that there are more than twice as many men as women in the full-time faculties of doctoral universities, and that women are 10 to 15 percent less likely than men to be in tenure-eligible positions.
Some professors expect to see an increase in the number of tenure offers to women in the next few years.
“I anticipate that over the next few years the situation will improve, reflecting a higher consciousness about the need for greater faculty diversity resulting from the crisis of this past academic year,” Cohen writes in an e-mail.
“I would imagine that in the course of this year more tenure offers have already started being made to women, and this trend will continue next year,” Ryan writes in an e-mail. “We will see the results of this year’s efforts next year.”
—Staff writer Tina Wang can be reached at tinawang@fas.harvard.edu.