Female Harvard Faculty Retire Earlier on Average, FAS Report Reveals

Female Harvard faculty members are retiring earlier than their male counterparts, per the 2024 Faculty Trends report presented at a Faculty of Arts and Sciences Administration meeting last week.

The difference is most pronounced after the age of 80, according to the report, which predicted that approximately 75 percent of female faculty members are expected to retire by 80, while 75 percent of male faculty members are expected to retire around age 85.

The report also noted an uptick in retirements last year, with more than twice as many tenured retirements since the FAS’ 2023 implementation of the Faculty Retirement Option.

Offered as a one-time alternative to the Faculty Retirement Program, the FRO allowed faculty members aged 73 and older to receive additional payments equal to their base salary upon retirement.

The report attributed the increase of retirements last year to the roll-out of the FRO program and anticipates more retiring faculty in the 2024-2025 school year.

In the period between the implementation of the FRP in 2010 and 2024, female faculty accounted for 18 percent of retirements — a number that spiked to 12 of 25 retiring faculty members.

The report also found a dip in the percentage of faculty members granted tenure last year, from a 78 percent five-year average to 70 percent for the 2023-24 academic year.

Among the 45 newly appointed tenured faculty members are History of Science professor Hannah Marcus — who also sits on Executive Committee of Harvard’s Center of Jewish Studies — and Economics professor Shengwu Li, the grandson of the former Singaporean prime minister Lee Kuan Yew who studies foraging theory and algorithmic strategies in investment.

Currently, 39 percent of FAS faculty are women, and less than one percent identify as nonbinary. While representation of people of color increased, the number of female tenure-track faculty decreased. On average, tenure-track and non-ladder faculty are on average more diverse — both by gender, ethnicity, and race — than tenured faculty.

Over the past 10 years, hiring has remained relatively stable across the Arts & Humanities and Sciences divisions of the FAS. Faculty for SEAS has expanded according to the strategic plan.

—Staff writer Angelina J. Parker can be reached at angelina.parker@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @angelinajparker.

—Staff writer Xinni (Sunshine) Chen can be reached at sunshine.chen@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @sunshine_cxn.