Dive Brief:
- The share of women and faculty of color in tenure-track positions has increased over the past several years — but advancement hurdles persist for everyone but White men, according to a new report from the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources.
- The share of tenure-track faculty who are racial or ethnic minorities rose to 26% in the 2022-23 academic year. That’s up from 21% in the 2016-17 academic year. Increases in Asian and Hispanic or Latino faculty members drove the growth, CUPA-HR found.
- Despite gains like these, greater shares of women and faculty of color work in the lowest-ranking faculty positions than in the highest-ranking professorships.
Dive Insight:
The latest CUPA-HR report sheds light on pervasive inequities in faculty representation. The advancement hurdles that women and faculty of color face have wide-ranging implications, including disparities in job security and pay.
“Promotion from assistant to associate professor is often accompanied by tenure, which provides a certain amount of job security,” the report states. “Denial of this promotion generally means the faculty member must secure an academic position in another institution or drop out of academia altogether.”
Yet the data shows that the shares of faculty of color and women decline at higher professor ranks. At the lowest level — assistant professor — 35% of people in the role during the 2022-23 academic year were faculty of color and a majority, 53%, were women.
But those shares decreased within the next highest rank, associate professor, when faculty members usually gain tenure.
In 2022-23, just 26% of associate professors were faculty of color and 47% were women. Among full professors — the highest rank — 22% of faculty were racial or ethnic minorities while 36% were women. Only White men see more representation the higher the rank, CUPA-HR said.
Promotions to these two ranks are usually the only times that tenure-track faculty receive a substantial salary boost, according to the report. “Therefore, promotion denials are salary increase denials,” the report argues.
These divides can create even further disparities among senior leadership. That’s because having fewer women and faculty of color at the full professor rank decreases their representation among the pool of candidates for positions like dean, provost and even president, CUPA-HR pointed out.
The report recommends that colleges evaluate their promotion pathways for tenure-track faculty and implement mentorship programs to help women and people of color navigate the process.
“To continue their investment and success in hiring women and people of color, leaders should strengthen efforts to promote them through the academic ranks with clear, transparent promotion criteria, effective communication, and actionable feedback,” the report states.