Reasons for the Gender Gap in Higher Education Salaries

Rhonda MagelProfessor and Chair

Department of Statistics

Perna (2001)- theoretical perspectives of salary studies1st – Human capital theory-accomplishments

of faculty member (rank, number of publications, teaching effectiveness, length of time in job, etc.)

2nd Structural Theory – characteristics of the institution or subject area (type of university, geographical location, academic area, etc.)

Studies involving both theories have found gapsBellas (1993) – average female faculty salary

approximately 25% below average male salary

Barbezat and Hughes (2005)-controlled for several factors and still found 17-23% of variation in faculty salaries (with women making less) not accounted for

Pay Gap Significantly higher at research universites (Barbezat and Hughes (2005)

Black Issues in Higher Ed (2005)Reports similar findings to Barbezat and

Hughes (2005)Women earn 96% of what men earn at

community colleges89% of what men earn at baccalaureate

institutions87% of what men earn at master’s

institutions78% of what men earn at doctoral institutions

Travis, Gross Johnson (2009)Women make less money than men in fields

that are traditionally considered female fieldsWomen make less money in science fields

that have few women

Time of HireSteinpreis, Anders, and Ritzke (1999) – both

men and women faculty rated male accomplishments higher than female accomplishments for job applicants even though equally qualified

Toumanoff (2005) – male faculty paid more at time of hire

Toutkoushian and Moore (2008) – male faculty paid more at time of hire but there is more of a gap later

Components in Relation to SalaryKasten (1984) and Jauch (2007) found research has

largest effect on salaries; Jauch studied 23 “hard science” disciplines and found faculty who had better research evaluations spent more time on research and less time on teaching – rewards went to faculty with stronger research records

Fairweather (2005)- considered number of hours faculty taught per week and number of research publications (not fine arts)-found salary went down for those faculty who taught an extra hour per week and went up with an additional publication (particularly at research universities)

Student Ratings of InstructionTeaching mainly evaluated at research

universities through SROIs (Read, Rama, and Raghunandan 2001)

SROIs have gender bias (Brady and Eisler 1999; Worthington 2002; Arbuckle and Williams 2003)

In younger faculty, men got better ratings than women

Gendered Expectations of StudentsFemale faculty must spend more time on

teaching to meet their gendered expectations (caring, nurturing, available more often)

Male gendered expectations (funny, energetic, intelligent) (Sprague and Massoni 2005; Laube, Massoni, Sprague, and Ferber 2007)

Students expect female teachers to be available more often (Burns-Glover and Veith 1995)

University Climate not as Good for WomenFemale faculty in STEM not supported in

research as much as Male faculty (Xu 2008)Gander (1999) and Park (1996) also report

less research supportFemale faculty have lower job satisfaction

and not as good of work climate (Settles, Cortina, Maley, Stewart (2006); Valian (2005))

Female Faculty felt excluded from discussions at work (Bronstein and Farnsworth (1998)

Climate (Continued)Cress and Hart (2009) found that the climate

within the same department could be totally different for female and male faculty

NDSU Study – Research Productivity

Slobin, McCulla, Magel (2002)Sampled 49 female faculty members at NDSU

and paired each of them with a male faculty member of same rank in a similar discipline

Asked each faculty member to give number in each category of presentations, publications, book chapters, performances, etc. within the past two years – then they were also asked to do that over their entire career

Paired difference in research productivity between male and female faculty was not significant over a two year period (although the sample average was lower for female faculty)

Paired difference in research productivity between male and female faculty was significant over a career

Female faculty appeared to loose a little ground every year in terms of research productivity when compared to male faculty

Findings

Perna (2001)Found that females had fewer research

accomplishments over their career than males of the same rank with similar experience controlling for academic field and type of university

Proportion of time women spent on teaching compared to research was higher than for men

Bellas and Toutkoushian (1999) found male faculty spent 6% more time on research than female faculty and 6% less time on teaching than female faculty

Other CountriesU.K. (Todd et al. (2008)) – found male faculty

had a much more realistic view of how they would be evaluated (maybe because fewer women in higher levels to mentor other women) – found female faculty were more likely to work overtime on teaching because they had to while male faculty were more likely to work overtime on research because they wanted to

Sweden (Viefers et al. (2006)) – climate not conducive to women faculty in physics

Van Anders (2004) - Canada

TheoryFemale faculty spend on the average more

time on teaching than male faculty to meet the gendered expectations of their students

Overall, support climate not as good for female faculty and they are not kept as informed (maybe because fewer women at higher levels to mentor other women)

As student ratings of instruction increase for female faculty, their salary will decrease with the opposite being true for male faculty

Changes in Percentages of WomenMid 90’s – Approximately 3% of full

professors were women at NDSUFall 2011 – 11% of full professors were

womenMid 90-s – 7-8% of associate professors were

womenFall 2011 – 30% of associate professors were

women

Work Life Survey – Early 2009All tenured and tenure-track faculty given a chance

to respondFaculty asked what percentages of time they

presently spend on the areas of teaching, research and service and what percentages of time they would like to spend

Female faculty spent significantly more time on teaching than they wanted to compared to male faculty

Female faculty spent less time on research than they wanted to compared to male faculty (but not significant)

University Climate ScoreResponses to 20 items on a scale of 1 to 4 –

respected by students, faculty, staff; feel isolated in the University; excluded from informal network; research is mainstream; etc.

Scores ranged from 20 to 80 (higher score better) with 50=“neutral”

Male – average 62.9Female – average 56.2 Significant at .001 – no significant difference

in STEM/Non-STEM

Standardized SROI ScoresZ=(Class Average – Average for Class

Level)/standard deviation of class levelStandardized SROI scores averaged for every

faculty member teaching at least one class during 2008-2009 academic year

No significant differences in number of classes taught by male and female faculty (2.85, 2.73)

Faculty Salary StudyNine month faculty salaries regressed on

Market Salary, Rank, Whether or not in STEM, Average standardized SROI score, gender, interaction between gender and SROI score, race, number of classes

Number of Classes, Race taken out of model – not significant

FindingsAs the average standardized SROI score for

male faculty increased by 1 unit, salary increased by $1847

As the average standardized SROI score for female faculty increased by 1 unit, salary decreased by $701.00

ADVANCE/FORWARDWorking on the entire university climate to

try to get everyone includedCourse release grants – to give women more

time to work on researchPromotion to Professor seminars – to make

sure faculty know what is expected of them to be promoted

Mentoring groups – again to make sure faculty are aware of what they need to do

SROIs – trying to get these changed to become less gender biased

Advance/ForwardThe number of women in full professor levels

has increasedThe number of women at associate professor

levels has increasedThe number of women in leadership positions

has increased

Questions???????