Gender within Higher Education: Women in the Workplace

  • Percent of positions in the workforce

    Women hold only 5% of all positions in the workforce (Parker, 2015)
  • Dean of Women

    The Dean of Women is the first administrative position offered to women in higher education. Alice Palmer takes the position at the University of Chicago (Parker, 2015).
  • NADW

    The National Associates Deans of Women holds their first meeting, which includes 17 Deans (Parker, 2015).
  • Percent of positions in the workforce

    Women hold 14% of all positions in the workforce (Parker, 2015).
  • Fair Labor Standards Act

    Fair Labor Standards Act set 40 as the maximum amount of hours that a person could work without getting paid over time. This act also set a minimum wage. This increase opportunity of equal pay (29 USC § 206a1). Source of Law: Statutory Law
  • Percent of positions in the workforce

    Women hold one-third of all positions in the workforce (Parker, 2015).
  • Civil Right Act

    Civil Right Act of 1964 states that an employer cannot deny hire of fire a qualified applicant based on any sort of discrimination, including gender (42 USC § 2000e-2). Source of Law: Statutory Law
  • Philips v. Martin Marietta

    Philips v. Martin Marietta is a case in which the court decides an employer violates Title VII when they refuse employment to women with young children (Timeline, 2019). Source of Law: Judicial
  • Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson

    Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson is a case in which the court holds true that sexual discrimination also includes sexual harassment (Timeline, 2019). Source of Law: Judicial
  • University of Pennsylvania v. EEOC

    University of Pennsylvania v. EEOC is a case in which a professor claims that she has been denied tenure based on a review of a chairman who sexually harassed her. The court decides that a university cannot withhold peer review materials, from tenure decisions, when it is related to discrimination. (Timeline, 2019). Source of Law: Judicial
  • Family and Medical Leave Act gives women the right to their same position once returning from a medical leave, such as a birth of a child. (5 USC § 6384). Source of Law: Statutory Law

  • Average difference in higher education’s pay between women and men

    A study is conducted from 1993 to 2013 on the average difference in higher education’s pay between women and men. On average, for the same position, men are earning $4.84K more a year (Robosky & Lee, 2018)
  • Current State

    Women are holding 40% of leadership positions in higher education. However, college women presidencies, since their 2011 23% holding rate, are slowly decreasing. Also, the amount of women on college boards is currently lower than they were in the 1970s (Smith, 2017).
  • References

    Parker, P. (2015). The Historical Role of Women in Higher Education. Administrative Issues Journal: Connecting Education, Practice, and Research, 5 (1:3-14). Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1062478.pdf
    Rabovsky, T., & Lee, H. (2018). Exploring the Antecedents of the Gender Pay Gap in U.S. Higher Education. Public Administration Review, 78(3), 375–385. https://doi-org.easydb.angelo.edu/10.1111/puar.12827
  • References

    Smith, D. G. (2017). Progress and paradox for women in US higher education. Studies in Higher Education, 42(4), 812–822. https://doi-org.easydb.angelo.edu/10.1080/03075079.2017.1286813
    Timeline of major Supreme Court decisions on women’s rights (2019). ACLU. Retrieved from https://www.aclu.org/other/timeline-major-supreme-court-decisions-womens-rights