Female Junior Faculty Percentage Drops

The share of non-tenured female Faculty in the humanities at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) has dropped nearly 15 percentage points over the past decade, according to Dean of the Faculty William C. Kirbys second annual letter to the Faculty.

Thirty-five percent of the junior Faculty in the humanities are women, down from almost 50 percent in the 1990s.

Faculty said they are concerned that a lack of gender diversity might hinder Harvards intellectual growth.

The statistics are bothering, said Chair of the Classics Department Richard F. Thomas. I hope they dont mean that the institution is hostile or unfavorable in any way.

Kirby wrote in his letter that women currently make up 20 percent of the tenured members of the FAS and over 30 percent of the non-tenured Faculty, which includes assistant and associate professors.

Despite the humanities decline, women comprise 42 percent of junior Faculty in the social sciences and 17 percent of junior Faculty in the natural sciences, which is two times the natural science percentage from five years ago, according to the letter.

Kirby wrote in his letter that encouraging applications from female candidates for junior and senior positions will be a priority in the coming years.

But female junior Faculty members said efforts to draw more women to junior faculty positions at Harvard must address the conflict between working toward tenure and caring for children.

By the time you get out of grad school...if you do want to start a family, you have limited time. The tenure process really puts you between a rock and a hard spot, Assistant Professor of Economics Julie H. Mortimer said.

Mortimer suggested that women in academic fields are often married to men who have similarly time-consuming careers and cannot take time off from work to take care of children.

Theres an even bigger burden for the employer there, Mortimer said.

The idea that there are slim chances of receiving tenure after holding a junior faculty position at Harvard also serves as a deterrent for prospective junior faculty members, according to a 2003 report by the Committee for the Equality of Women at Harvard (CEWH), a group started by Radcliffe alums in 1988.

But in October, Kirby announced adjustments to the tenure process to provide more departmental support for junior Faculty seeking tenure.

Departments now provide these candidates with a written assessment of their work at the beginning of their third year.

Dean for the Humanities Maria Tatar said she is trying to make others aware of these changes to the tenure system so that junior Faculty appointments will seem more attractive.

Were trying to get out the word to colleagues at other universities that the culture here has changed, that all junior positions are now tenurable, Tatar said.

Though she expressed concern for the downward trend in female junior Faculty for the humanities, Tatar noted that one possible explanation is that more women Faculty members are being promoted to senior Faculty positions from within departments.

A lack of female senior Faculty members within a department can also pose problems when recruiting women to fill junior Faculty positions, Tobin said.

A mentoring system to help junior Faculty through the tenure process might also attract more women to the positions, said Nancy Tobin 49, research chair of CEWH.

Kirby wrote in the annual letter that he hopes that FAS will consider how it can change the environments within departments to make the atmosphere more favorable to women. He encouraged job search committees to pay particular attention to women candidates.

Kenan Professor of Government Harvey C. Mansfield 53 said he does not agree with Kirbys decision to seek out more female Faculty members.

I dont think it should be Harvard policy to favor one sex over the other. Let the best candidates be chosen, regardless of sex. Anything else is quotas, Mansfield wrote in an e-mail.

Assistant Professor of African and African-American Studies and English and American Literature and Language Glenda R. Carpio said that issues of tenure do not create problems only for female junior faculty membersat a University with an aging faculty, recruiting young professors of either sex is important.

Younger scholars need the guidance of senior faculty, but they [also] need the support of people going through similar stages, Carpio said.

Staff writer Sara E. Polsky can be reached at polsky@fas.harvard.edu.