2008 Woodie Awards
Vanderbilt's female faculty have come a long way
Robyn Hyden
Issue date: 4/19/07 Section: News/Features
Women have made significant progress in the workplace since the sexual revolution of the 1970s, but they still have a long way to go. While women earn over half of bachelor's and master's degrees, they still make up less than half of the faculties of all major United States universities. At Vanderbilt, only 24% of faculty members are women. For years, Vanderbilt has lagged behind the business world and other universities in terms of hiring and retaining female faculty, but things are starting to change. The administration under Chancellor Gordon Gee is consciously catching up by increasing diversity among its faculty, establishing set policies that take power out of the hands of individuals and becoming more family-friendly. These changes make the university more attractive to highly desirable faculty candidates when hiring, which allows Vanderbilt to compete with other top-tier universities in the rankings.
With all of these changes occurring under Gee's leadership, Vanderbilt has experienced what one faculty member has termed a "progressive paradigm shift." While policies can be revised quickly, however, individual attitudes about women in the university system often lag behind. Vanderbilt's difficulty in transitioning to a more female- and family-friendly place reflects a larger societal ambivalence about women's and men's places in the workforce and in the home.
In the past, Vanderbilt retained very few of its female faculty members. The university only adopted an official parental leave policy after Gee took office in 2000, and it didn't go into effect until the fall of 2001. Establishing such a policy was one of his first priorities upon arrival, and under his leadership, an incredibly progressive policy was quickly approved for all tenure-track faculty members. This policy automatically gives faculty members a paid semester's leave of absence and adds a year to their tenure clock (the amount of time given until tenure consideration) for each child they have, with a maximum of three extra years. It applies to both fathers and mothers, though only one may take these benefits if both are faculty members. This policy applies to adoptive parents as well. (A similar policy was recently extended to non tenure-track faculty with long-term contracts.)
With all of these changes occurring under Gee's leadership, Vanderbilt has experienced what one faculty member has termed a "progressive paradigm shift." While policies can be revised quickly, however, individual attitudes about women in the university system often lag behind. Vanderbilt's difficulty in transitioning to a more female- and family-friendly place reflects a larger societal ambivalence about women's and men's places in the workforce and in the home.
In the past, Vanderbilt retained very few of its female faculty members. The university only adopted an official parental leave policy after Gee took office in 2000, and it didn't go into effect until the fall of 2001. Establishing such a policy was one of his first priorities upon arrival, and under his leadership, an incredibly progressive policy was quickly approved for all tenure-track faculty members. This policy automatically gives faculty members a paid semester's leave of absence and adds a year to their tenure clock (the amount of time given until tenure consideration) for each child they have, with a maximum of three extra years. It applies to both fathers and mothers, though only one may take these benefits if both are faculty members. This policy applies to adoptive parents as well. (A similar policy was recently extended to non tenure-track faculty with long-term contracts.)
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