I’m writing in response to Victoria Hart’s article “Where Are the Women?” published in the most recent issue of Blot.
First, I want to applaud Hart and Blot for investigating this important issue. The numbers at the beginning of the article, which show the stark drop-off in the number of women in the higher academic ranks at the University of Idaho, reveal a puzzling question — why are there so few female full professors at UI?
However, though I think the article convincingly articulates the problem, I take issue with its conclusions about why the university has so few female full professors.
The article and its sources point to the difficulties of getting tenure, especially when one is juggling family obligations like children or care of elderly parents, as one of the main culprits in the inability of female professors to move up the ranks. But while tenure is certainly a big obstacle to advancement, I would argue that the answer is to be found more in the economics of the situation. I assume that Hart thinks so too, and that’s why she interviewed UI economics professor Jon Miller for the article. However, it seems that for some reason Miller chose to indulge in retrograde speculations about female biology and the role of women in the workplace, rather than sticking to what is ostensibly his area of expertise.
I’m a rhetorician, not an economist, but I can point to three economic factors that have personally affected me as a female professor at the University of Idaho.
1. The inadequacy of the university’s current family leave policy
The university is obligated by federal law to provide eligible employees 12 weeks of unpaid family leave. Meaning that if I give birth or have to take care of a sick or dying family member, legally they can’t fire me if I take off work for this amount of time, though they don’t have to pay me. Of course, many people can’t afford to lose three months pay, especially if they’ve just produced another mouth to feed. So the university “generously” offers new parents the opportunity to use their accumulated paid sick leave, which can’t total more than six weeks.
As someone who has been through it, I can tell you that six weeks is just barely enough time for the body to physically recover from giving birth, and this is to say nothing of the other disruptions (both physical and mental) that suddenly being in possession of a creature who requires nonstop care creates for new parents. Six weeks is simply not long enough. Moreover, because of the structure of the academic year, professors who have babies mid-semester (and owing to the caprices of reproductive biology, sometimes you just can’t plan otherwise) are forced to either create serious interruptions for the students in their classes, or else to take the entire semester off, either going without pay or working out special deals dependent on the generosity and consideration of their department chairs.
2. The outrageous cost of child care at the University of Idaho
For faculty members, the cost for full-time child care for infants under a year at the UI Children’s Center is an astonishing $1,032 per month. In other words, female faculty members who do return to work immediately and who can’t find other child care options have to pay, in essence, a second mortgage, which for many is economically unfeasible.
Compare this situation to that of Finland, the United Kingdom and many other countries, which legally grant new mothers up to one year’s paid maternity leave. These countries typically also have reasonably priced child care. While I’m not delusional enough to think that this could happen in the U.S., I do think that if UI is serious about wanting to retain more female faculty members, it needs to implement much more family-friendly leave policies and child care options.
3. The comparatively very low University of Idaho salaries for all faculty
The numbers on the 2013 national faculty salary survey, conducted by the American Association of University Professors, show that while male and female professors tend to make almost the same amount at UI, all categories of UI board-appointed faculty salaries (assistant, associate and full) have a ranking of “Far below the median” of faculty salaries nationally.
“Where Are the Women?” implies that the steep decline in the numbers of women who are full professors, as compared to assistant and associate professors, is the result of female professors not being able to hack the demands of family and job. Certainly, this may be a factor in some cases. But as someone who’s been observing the comings and goings of faculty here for almost 10 years, I would like to suggest that many good female faculty members (i.e., those who have proven themselves by getting tenure) who leave UI may have simply discovered that similarly achieving females at other institutions are paid more than they are at UI.
I’m a tenured female faculty member at UI who is also the mother of a young child. In contrast to what Miller suggests in “Where Are the Women?” I did not need to quit my job even temporarily when I had my daughter, and I’m currently working toward becoming a full professor. I have many other female colleagues in the same situation. I count myself as very lucky — despite the normal hardships of parenting a small child while also working, I have been lucky to work for the English Department that is generous and sensitive to the needs of all its board-appointed faculty. I’m lucky to have a spouse who is also an academic, and who helps with child care. I am lucky that nature has been cooperative — I was able to get pregnant at a fairly late age (since, like many female academics, I waited until I was tenured to have a child). Luckily, my daughter was born without complications at the end of the spring semester, so I wasn’t forced to rely on UI’s inadequate maternity leave system.
However, many women don’t have my luck. Pregnancies and births can be health- and life-threatening; children can be born with special needs; elders can fall ill; family relationships can be complicated. I don’t think that luck should be the factor that ultimately determines whether female faculty members succeed in a workplace setting that is, when it comes right down to it, fairly hostile to them, not least in an economic sense. I think that UI can do better — and if it wants women represented in the highest academic ranks here, it will have to.
Jodie Nicotra can be reached at [email protected]