 "Photo: Peter Franklin, Daily Texan Staff")
Male faculty members at UT earn more than their female counterparts and are promoted more often, according to a report presented Thursday in the Gebauer Building.
Two members of the research team, government professor Gretchen Ritter and sociology professor Chandra Muller, found that in 2007 at UT, female professors earned $9,028 less than their male counterparts. Women comprised only 20 percent of department chairs and were promoted less often than men.
They also found that more than 14 percent of female faculty members reported that they were subject to sexual harassment and that UT lags behind 11 of its 12 peer institutions in benefits, such as paid childbirth leave, domestic partner benefits and elder-care support resources.
“We worked for a year and a half with faculty, staff and graduate students, and we were very careful to make sure that everything we said was firmly based in solid data so that there would be no disagreement with what we concluded,” Ritter said. “What we found is that UT has some work to do. However, the president and the provost are firmly behind what we’re doing.”
Muller said competing offers, rather than productivity, often determine a professor’s salary, producing pay discrepancies between men and women. She said the most pronounced differences in salaries are among full professors with equivalent experience.
“In this process, a faculty member will get an offer from another institution, usually with more money and perks such as research funding,” Muller said. “Women, for a variety of reasons, are less likely than men to pursue competing offers and less likely to be given an offer because they are perceived as less movable.”
Ganviva Reyes, graduate student and president of the women’s and gender studies organization, said accommodations need to be made for female students and faculty.
“A lot of women are concerned with the issue of how to balance having children and raising a family with their goals of pursuing an advanced degree and conducting research in their field,” Reyes said. “Unfortunately, our culture is not supportive enough for women who want to do both.”
During the presentation, Ritter emphasized the need for long-term structural changes in hiring and promotion practices, rather than one-time fixes, to ensure that problems do not reappear. She proposed holding a series of meetings with the administration, saying it would likely take five to 10 years for the problems to be fully redressed.
Ritter said the issue of equity between male and female faculty members and diversity among faculty members not only affects professors but their students as well.
“When I taught at MIT, I saw women in science and engineering who loved their field but felt invisible and ignored in male-dominated fields,” Ritter said. “Diverse faculty is important for students to be able to envision themselves in any field.”
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