Work–life policies and female faculty representation in US doctoral‐granting economics departments

• Date: 01 March 2019
• Published date: 01 March 2019
• Author: Ron C. Mittelhammer,Jill J. McCluskey,Zarrina H. Juraqulova
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/irj.12246

Work–life policies and female faculty

representation in US doctoral-granting

economics departments

Zarrina H. Juraqulova, Jill J. McCluskey and

Ron C. Mittelhammer

ABSTRACT

This article examines the relationships between work–life policies and female faculty

representation and promotion at US doctoral-granting economics departments. The

data were collected in 2012 on tenure-track and tenured full-time faculty from 125 de-

partments and updated in 2018 to include promotion status. Variables include individ-

uals and their educational backgrounds, professional experience and publications.

Only publications and experience are statistically significant for predicting academic

rank for the female subsample, and the impact of publications is much larger for

women compared with men. Work–life policies differ in explaining the representation

of women across academic ranks. Dual-career policies have a positive effect on female

representation at the assistant and associate levels but do not have a statistically signif-

icant impact at the full professor level. National Science Foundation ADVANCE

grantee universities have increased female representation across all ranks, but the ef-

fect is the smallest at the full professor level. Work–life policies are insignificant in

predicting promotion.

1 INTRODUCTION

Is economics a ‘dismal science’for female faculty? If so, what can be done to change

the situation? The Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession of

the American Economic Association (AEA) annually tracks the representation level

of female academics in US economics departments and provides the report in its

newsletter each year. Despite an increase in the number of female faculty in

doctoral-granting economics departments during the last quarter of the 20th century,

women are still under-represented relative to their male counterparts. The share of fe-

male assistant professors is 29 per cent, the share of female associate professors is 23

per cent and the share of female full professors is only 14 per cent. The proportion of

women declines with faculty rank (Lundberg, 2018). There is a wealth of literature

❒Zarrina H. Juraqulova, Economics Department, Denison University, 100 West College St, Granville,

OH 43023, USA and Jill J. McCluskey and Ron C. Mittelhammer, School of Economics Sciences,

Washington State University, P.O. Box 810, Pullman, WA 99164, USA. Correspondence should be

addressed to Zarrina Juraqulova, Economics Department, Denison University, 100 West College St,

Granville, OH 43023, USA; e-mail: juraqulovaz@denison.edu

Industrial Relations Journal 50:2, 168–196

ISSN 0019-8692

© 2019 Brian Towers (BRITOW) and John Wiley & Sons Ltd

examining the paucity of women at higher levels of the academy, both in economics

and across other disciplines. Men and women are unevenly distributed across aca-

demic disciplines, with women being under-represented in science and math-intensive

fields and over-represented in some humanities fields (Ceci et al., 2014). Universities

around the world are also concerned with the low representation of women in the

higher academic ranks. In the UK, women account for only 14.1 per cent of full pro-

fessors; in Italy, they account for 16 per cent of full professors and 32 per cent of as-

sociate professors (Zacchia, 2017).

Previous studies find that causes of under-representation of women in higher fac-

ulty ranks include differential productivity, different professional behaviours and dis-

crimination at the time of promotion decisions (Kahn, 2012; Weisshaar, 2017). There

is also evidence of larger gender gaps in salaries and job satisfaction in economics

compared with other math-intensive fields (Ceci et al., 2014; Bandiera, 2016). The

commonly offered reason for the lack of female academics at higher ranks, or delays

in the tenure process, is stress related to work–life issues in the areas of teaching, re-

search, service (Hart and Cress, 2008) and family issues that include pregnancy deci-

sions and caring for children (Ginther and Kahn, 2006; Ceci et al., 2014). Women

often teach classes with heavier student loads and spend more time on mentoring

and advising responsibilities, which leaves them less time for research. Using the Na-

tional Survey of College and University Faculty, Hart and Cress (2008) find that

teaching, service and research responsibilities contribute to increased levels of stress

for women. They argue that living and working in stress-producing environments

can lead to turnover and absenteeism and a lack of productivity. As for the impact

of marital and parental status on faculty members’time allocation and productivity,

women with children have less discretionary time than men and childless women and

likely allocate a smaller percentage of their time to research (Winslow, 2010). Simi-

larly, about 71 per cent of nearly 400 Professional Opportunities for Women in Re-

search and Education awardees for the period 1997 to 2000 indicated that

balancing career and family is the principal barrier for women scientists to enter

and/or remain in academia (Rosser, 2004).

The representation of women and their presence in academic tenured positions

have important impacts in university settings. The presence of a greater proportion

of women in faculty positions disproves the stereotype that women do not belong in

economics departments. As Bayer and Rouse (2016) argue, ‘Students can be inspired

by the role model or they can be less subject to stereotype threat in the presence of a

stereotype-defining economist’(p. 227). Several studies have documented the bene-

fits of female faculty role models in the discipline. Academic disciplines with higher

proportions of female faculty tend to attract more women into their programs (Fer-

ber, 1995; Hale and Regev, 2013). Female students perform significantly better in

courses if taught by female faculty (Carrell et al., 2010). Similar outcomes have been

observed in completion of PhD programs by female graduate students having fe-

male faculty advisors and in establishing further professional relationships (Berg

and Ferber, 1983; Neumark and Gardecki, 1998). Female job candidates may prefer

departments that have recruited and promoted women faculty in the past. Using

data on academic economists, Kolpin and Singell (1996) find that the willingness

of economics departments to hire women increased with the number of senior fe-

male faculty during the 1970s. The increased numbers of female assistant and ten-

ured professors appear to have a positive effect on the productivity level of

women in academia. Female academics are more likely to co-author and collaborate

169Work–life policies and female faculty representation

© 2019 Brian Towers (BRITOW) and John Wiley & Sons Ltd