Summary across disciplines
Consistent with the findings in other countries, women were less well-represented in economics, philosophy and political science than in history and sociology. In sociology, women made up 44.5 per cent of faculty (2006-07), in comparison to 23.5 per cent of faculty in economics doctoral departments (2017), 23.1 per cent of tenured and tenure-track faculty in the top 50 philosophy departments (2015), and 28.6 per cent of political science department faculty (2010). In all disciplines, women held a higher proportion of positions in lower ranks and, where reported, non-tenure track positions. In economics, it was also reported that women held higher proportions of positions in departments without doctoral programs than in departments with doctoral programs. We do not have sufficient data to compare the levels of women at professorial levels across disciplines.
Single figure of women’s representation across disciplines
Researchers on the GESS project were unable to find workforce data for the US that would allow us to compare women’s representation at a disciplinary level. The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) has a wealth of publicly available data but none of it can be drilled down to the disciplinary level. On the National Center for Education Statistics website the most recent figures on gender in the workforce that we could identify were for 2016 and only university-wide. These showed that women made up 46 per cent of the academic workforce and held 32 per cent of professorial positions.
Exercise caution in presenting these figures in comparison given the differences in sources and noting that figures for history are association membership figures and not representative of the workforce.
Figure 1: Appointments of women in five disciplines in the US, various dates
Source: Various sources, see table above. Note that figure for economics is for faculty in doctoral departments.
Economics
In its first survey of economics departments in 1972, the Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession found that women represented 8.8 per cent of assistant, 3.7 per cent of associate and 2.4 per cent of full professors (Lundberg, 2017). While women’s representation has increased markedly since then, in recent years there has been stagnation at the assistant and associate professor levels which saw no substantial increase in the proportion of women from 2005 to 2017 (Lundberg, 2018). In 2017, women tended to be better represented among faculty in departments without doctoral programs than with doctoral programs (women comprised 33.7 per cent and 23.5 per cent of all faculty respectively). In doctoral departments, women held a greater proportion of non-tenure track positions (36.1 per cent) than tenure-track positions (20.1 per cent). Women also tend to make up a higher share of lower ranking than higher ranking positions. In doctoral departments, women made up 28.8 per cent of untenured assistants, 26.1 per cent of untenured associates, 23 per cent of tenured associates, and 13.9 per cent of tenured professors (Lundberg, 2018). It was noted that women are relied on to teach in both doctoral and non-doctoral departments, and looking across institutions, as departmental emphasis on research increased, women’s representation amongst faculty decreased.
History
Workforce data on academic appointments in the US was unattainable but the American Historical Association kindly shared their membership statistics with us. Membership data from the association shows that 42 per cent of members in 2019 were female. There are almost equal numbers of female and male PhD candidates (51 and 49 per cent) and equal numbers of assistant professors. There are slightly more female postdocs (53 per cent) and slightly fewer associate professors and adjuncts (44 and 47 per cent). Only 35 per cent of members at professorial level are women and only 27 per cent of members who are emeritus are women.
Philosophy
In 2015, women held 23.1 per cent of tenured and tenure-track positions at the top 50 doctoral programs in the US (Van Camp, 2015). We have been unable to source much recent data about the status of women in philosophy in the US. In 2006, women represented 19 per cent of faculty in the top 20 philosophy departments (Haslanger, 2007). With regard to the kind of positions women held, a 2003 study found that women made up a larger share of part-time instructors (26 per cent) than full-time staff (16.6 per cent) (Norlock, 2011).
Political Science
A report from American Political Science Association reported that women represented 28.6 per cent of political science faculty in 2010 (APSA, 2011). Women were less present in the higher ranking and more prestigious positions, according to data from the Committee on the Status of Women in the Profession – while 60 per cent of men hold tenured positions, around one in three women remain in non-tenured positions (Monroe & Chiu, 2010).
Sociology
A 2009 report from the American Sociological Association’s Committee on the Status of Women in Sociology reported that, in 2006/7, women represented 44.5 per cent of all research faculty (Dellinger et al., 2009). Women represented a smaller share of professors (31.3 per cent) than in all the other levels in which women held more than half of faculty positions. Unfortunately, there have been no more recent reports. We collected ASA membership data to act as a proxy for more recent sociological workforce data, however, ASA memberships is not representative of all sociologists in the US so the results should be used with caution. In 2018, women made up 54.8 per cent of ASA members in academic or teaching appointments. Despite their strong representation in the discipline, women still made up smaller proportion than men of ASA members at full professor level (45.9 per cent of members at this level were women).
References
American Political Science Association (APSA) (2011) Political Science in the 21st Century, Washington: American Political Science Association, Task Force on Political Science in the 21st Century.
Kirsten A. Dellinger, Paula England, Margaret K. Nelson, Belinda Robnett, Salvador Vidal-Ortiz and Roberta Spalter-Roth (2009) 2009 Report of the American Sociological Association’s Committee on the Status of Women in Sociology. American Sociological Association’s Committee on the Status of Women in Sociology (CSWS).
Sally Haslanger (2007) ‘Changing the ideology and culture of Philosophy: Not by reason (alone)’, Hypasia 23(2), 210–223.
Shelly Lundberg (2018) The 2017 Report on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession. Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession, American Economic Association.
Shelly Lundberg (2017) The 2016 Report of the Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession. Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession, American Economic Association.
Kristen R. Monroe and William F. Chiu (2010) ‘Gender Equality in the Academy: The Pipeline Problem’, Political Science 43(2), 303–308.
Kathryn Norlock (2011) 2011 Update, American Philosophical Association Committee on the Status of Women.
Julie Van Camp (2015) Tenured/tenure-track faculty women at 98 U.S. doctoral programs in philosophy, American Philosophical Association Committee on the Status of Women.