News Flash: MIT Female Professors
For people who claim that the need for feminism is a thing of the past, this article published March 21, 2011 in the Associated Press proves otherwise. Colleges and universities, some of the oldest and most respected institutions in the country, still foster discrimination against women. This particular article discussed the ways in which MIT is trying to make its campus a more women friendly environment. These changes came about in response to campus surveys that looked at the basic statistics as well as the sentiments of the female faculty. They discovered that there was a climate of dissatisfaction among the women ranging from feeling unwelcome to issues with policies. The surveys showed that women felt that their voices in department meetings were being ignored and they generally felt unwelcome. Part of this negative attitude towards women could be due to the fact that among the science and engineering faculty there were 46 women equaling only 7 percent of the total faculty. In response to the feedback from the data collected MIT made a conscious effort to improve the condition of women on campus. From 1995 to 2011 the female faculty of the science and engineering departments increased from 7% to 17%. While this is a great improvement in a short amount of time, this is only one campus nationwide and it is still far from equal. This is indicative of a larger problem for established institutions with a long history of discrimination, which leads to perpetuating a cycle of exclusion that is hard to break.
An important part of figuring out how to break this cycle is understanding what the factors are continuing the exclusion and how they hurt those that are involved. One thing that stood out to me in this article was that the staff was still only 17% female. In the article they seemed impressed by the amount of increase that they had experienced, but I think that it is important to keep in mind how far there still is to go. Recruiting more female faculty is especially important at universities because it creates a more welcoming environment not only for female faculty, but also for female students. Professors are in a unique position because they can be an inspiration and example to their students. Female students may be shying away from studying science and engineering because they do not have strong examples of women in the field and therefore believe that it would be too difficult.
Having strong role models to inspire achievement is one of the strongest ways to break the cycle of exclusion. This idea is illustrated in Eang’s article “Leading by Example” which discuss the hardship her mother faced in being a female Cambodian immigrant in America. Her mother easily could have settled into continuing the traditional female role, but she advocated the importance of education and the freedom women have in the country to her daughters. By putting in this effort she raised daughters who were the first women in the family to ever attend college. This kind of inspiration can happen on an even larger scale on college campuses across the United States. If more female professors are hired into departments of science and engineering they can inspire students who may become the next generation of professors creating a chain reaction until the cycle of exclusion is ended.
In order to get more female science professors it is important to understand why it is difficult for women to enter a male dominated department. The article talked about women feeling as though their voices were being ignored in department meetings. This is a phenomenon that can be seen often in settings where women enter a male dominated setting. Women with the same qualifications are seen as second-class citizens, which is then reinforced by fewer women in positions of power. MIT seems to be aware of this and is attempting to change the working environment by putting more women in senior administrator positions. Another beneficial method that they have implemented is publicizing their family leave policies. I think that this is a very important way to reach out to women. After “Reading Stories from the Sidelines” by Pinand I realized that even though there may be maternity policies in place this does not mean that taking leave will not affect their jobs. Even when women follow the guidelines by taking only the allotted amount of time as well as working the appropriate amount of hours they are still compared to their male colleagues. They are penalized for wanting to leave work to care for their families and to create a healthy home. In order to attract women to a department it is important to advertise not only that policies are in place, but also that there is an attitude of support behind such policies.
I think that paternity leave is a great way to eliminate feelings of intimidation about entering a male dominated field. By instating paternity leave there will no longer be the hesitation to hire a women because both genders will be as likely to have to take time off. It will also send a message that the family is as important to the male of the household as it is to the female. Women will no longer have to feel as though they are competing to prove that they are still worth hiring despite the time off. This will help to dissipate the “Mommy Tax” that Crittenden talks about in her article. With the support and presence of her husband while the baby is still young it will be easier to create a stable home and game plan for going back to the work force. Also Crittenden touches on the fact that there is a “Daddy tax” that also exists because men feel that appearing to be devoted to your family can be damaging to your career. This show that no one in society is benefiting from the exclusion and discrimination that is still very much present in our culture. Men feel like they cannot be fully invested in their families and women feel like they cannot be fully invested in their careers. In conclusion placing more emphasis on the importance of family will help to break the cycle of exclusion of women in universities as well as other institutions. Valuing the family more will improve the emotional environment of the entire society and help to ensure our future by fostering healthy children.
This newsflash is very interesting especially for women considering a career as a Professor. A couple things that came to mind while reading were first the amount of women teachers in lower grades that seems to greatly outnumber males. Second, how this issue was discussed in part in the WMST brownbag featuring Professors speaking about their experience with pregnancy and the ways they felt the need to precisely plan their children around their careers possibly because of some of the issues discussed in this article. i also was very interested in your point about the need for examples of women excelling in the sciences for young girls to aspire to, I agree that this is especially important. I also was kind of shocked to see that many women Professors felt their opinions were not valued because I had previously felt that once you had gotten a job some of the discrimination might fall away.
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