Teaching Up: The Intersection of Impression Management and Controlling Images for Black,Cisgender, Women Faculty

This is a qualitative study of Black cisgender women's faculty experiences using an interactionist framework. Relying on in-depth interviews, we explore the experiences of eight Black, cisgender, women, sociology faculty across the United States in various tenure and non-tenure roles at different institutions (community college, teaching college, and research universities). Participants engaged in a variety of impression management techniques to overcome implicit biases and controlling images that shaped their students', and their colleagues', perceptions. While women in our study had agency, they were limited in the ways they could present themselves, a phenomenon Deil-Amen and Tevis describe as circumscribed agency. Once women in our study had achieved seniority they were able to express themselves in culturally authentic ways. Theoretically, this study shows how interpretive sociology can overcome its theoretical limitations in dealing with race, and shows that the interactionist perspective is actually well suited towards discussing this matters in a meaningful way. We conclude by advocating for greater awareness surrounding the lived experience of Black, women faculty, especially by those who mentor and evaluate them.     

Making Black Lives Matter in academia: A Black feminist call for collective action against anti‐blackness in the academy

In this article, as have many Black women scholars in the past, we again call for collective action against anti‐blackness and White supremacy in the academy. Drawing from black feminist theory, we discuss the long history of Black women academics' activism against anti‐black racism and introduce the current movement: Black Lives Matter (BLM). Although BLM is often construed as resisting anti‐black violence outside the academy, it is also relevant for within the academy wherein anti‐blackness is likely to be manifested as disdain, disregard, and disgust for Black faculty and students. We discuss some of the ways in which anti‐blackness and liberal White supremacy are manifested in the lives of Black faculty and students, and propose that non‐Black allies have key roles to play in resisting them. Like second‐hand cigarette smoke that harms everyone in proximity, anti‐blackness and White supremacy harm us all, and a shared movement is needed to dismantle them.     

The representation of women in top ranked sociology departments

This paper compares the status of women in highly ranked sociology departments with their status in departments nationwide. The top ranked departments influence the profession markedly through their disproportionate share of the nation’s graduate students and faculty, and their production of more than half of the faculty in graduate departments. Women on top ranked faculties are more often at advanced ranks with tenure than their national peers, but there are proportionally fewer of them than in departments across the nation. Gender gaps in rank and tenure are also narrower in top ranked departments. Although women graduate students are less common in top ranked than in national departments, the former have financial assistance more often. Recent hiring practices have merely maintained women’s current level of representation, but men are disproportionately vacating faculty positions. With most departments growing slowly, if at all, this will result in a small increase over time in women’s fraction of faculty positions. where he is developing, with colleagues, a longitudinal model of the institutional factors that promote and impede progress in affirmative action in academia, and is completing a study of “double jeopardy” for minority women sociologists. This study was funded, in part, by the American Sociological Association, the Pacific Sociological Association, the University of Oregon Center for Women in Society, and an Arizona State University support grant. However, these organizations are not responsible for the views expressed in the paper.     

Violence in Predominantly White Institutions of Higher Education

Abstract

This chapter examines the patterns of violence associated with the tenure process for the African American professor in traditionally white higher education institutions. In this article, violence is examined in the context of its psychological and demeaning effects. The following dimensions are reviewed: recruitment of African American faculty; the review process for tenure; the politics of tenure; socialization and orientation of faculty; junior faculty as victims and tenure denial. Intervention strategies for addressing the problems of violence are recommended.     

Work–Family Balance and Tenure Reasonableness: Gender Differences in Faculty Assessment

Abstract

Perceptions of work–family balance and of the reasonableness of tenure expectations are key faculty retention factors. Using a national job satisfaction survey with 2438 tenure-track assistant professors, we explore whether faculty assessment of departmental and institutional support for family–work balance and their satisfaction with family-friendly policies influence their perceptions of the reasonableness of tenure expectations. We pay attention to the importance of gender in our models. Results reveal that women are less likely than men to report tenure expectations as scholars are reasonable and that departments and institutions are supportive of family–work balance. Departmental support for family–work balance, caring for an ill family member, satisfaction with family-friendly policies, and workload have the strongest association with reasonableness. Satisfaction with family-friendly policies has a significant relationship with reasonableness of tenure expectations only for faculty with family care responsibilities. Implications for family-friendly policies and practices in academia are discussed.     

Framing the Faculty Gender Gap: A View from STEM Doctoral Students

Drawing on 48 interviews with science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) doctoral students at a private research university in the United States (US), we examine how students make sense of the preponderance of men at the faculty level despite increasing gender parity among students. Students' primary explanatory frame, historical bias, suggests that the gender gap will disappear when enough women attain their doctorates (PhDs). Competing frames include innate and constructed gender difference and the perceived incompatibility between a woman's body clock and an academic tenure clock. We argue that the frames that students use to explain the gender gap shed light on the cultural context of STEM, which is characterized by a tension between the belief in a meritocratic system and the acknowledgement of structural inequality. We suggest that men and women's preference for explanations that preclude bias, in light of women students' own experiences with sexism in graduate school, contributes to the reproduction of inequality by rendering invisible structural barriers to gender equality.     

Social Work Students and Faculty: Testing the Convergence of Perspectives on Student Writing Abilities

Students (n = 244, 76% MSSW) and faculty members (n = 40, 36% tenure or tenure track) at a social work program at a large public southern U.S. university were surveyed to assess within- and between-group differences in perspectives on student writing. Faculty members expressed significantly greater concern with student writing than students. Latina/o, African American, female, and undergraduate students all reported more writing challenges compared to their peers. Likewise, full-time faculty members who teach mainly online or had less training in writing instruction reported more challenges than their colleagues. Overall, our findings support the need for writing interventions that acculturate students to the discipline through a more inclusive, culturally competent discourse as well as increased faculty preparation for teaching writing.     

Sex Composition,Masculinity Stereotype Dissimilarity and the Quality of Men's Workplace Social Relations

Previous research suggests that the quality of men's work group social relations varies depending on the sex composition of the work unit. Previous studies also suggest that men derive different benefits from working with other men than with women and that the higher status associated with men and masculinity advantages men in their relations with women workers. Previous sex composition studies tell us little, however, about the extent to which the quality of men's work group social relations with women and other men depends on how well a man fits dominant masculinity stereotypes. Drawing on sex composition and gender constructionist approaches to gender and work I investigate in this study the effects of men's individual similarity to masculinity stereotypes on the affective quality of their social relations with coworkers, given the sex composition of their work groups. The data for this study consist of male, mostly white, non‐faculty employees of a public university in the northwest United States. I discuss my results in terms of both individual outcomes and implications for understanding sex and gender inequalities in work organizations.     

Women in Social Work Education: Progress or Promise?

Abstract

The literature on the status of female social work educators has addressed the problems these educators face in the areas of salaries, academic rank and tenure, publication rates, and level of decision making. Given this attention to the status of these educators, one might expect positive resolutions to these problems. This article, which is based on a review of both the current literature and statistics on US social work faculty, evaluates the status of women faculty in social work academia to determine if progress has been made. Findings reveal that female educators are seeing slow improvment in some areas; however, inequalities continue. The authors suggest strategies for supporting the development and retention of women faculty.     

Social capital,human capital,and career success in public relations in Taiwan

This study examined the degree to which demographic, human capital, and social capital variables can predict career success for public relations practitioners in Taiwan. Social capital includes two dimensions: social trust and social network. Human capital includes education, rank, career tenure, and motivation. Public relations practitioners (150) from 16 agencies in Taiwan were interviewed in 2006. Social capital explained the significant variance in subjective career success. As for human capital, motivation negatively predicted job comfort, but positively predicted challenge and task significance. Career tenure and rank in the agency positively predicted autonomy, while only age and professional tenure predicted objective success. This study also revealed that the longer the practitioners stay in the business, the more the sense of autonomy, financial rewards, and support they have. Combined with the results of objective career success, career tenure is the best predictor for career success among all the variables in human capital. Since gender does not predict career success, we may infer that public relations practice in Taiwan does not seem hostile to women.     

University-Community Partnership Centers

Abstract

In academic settings, community research, and the service that goes along with it, is often not valued as much as other methods of research. The more qualitative and labor intensive nature of applied research often raises concerns about whether pre-tenured faculty can publish the sufficient quantity and quality of work necessary to achieve tenure. This paper describes successful collaborations through a university-based Community Partnership Center with members of community-based organizations in low-income inner-city neighborhoods, social work students, and faculty. Two case examples illustrate the co-authors' involvement with the Center as pre-tenured faculty. The article outlines the challenges and benefits of involvement with an established center for university-community partnerships. With careful planning and coordination, such centers can be excellent vehicles through which to achieve important mutual benefits for community-based organizations, student learning, and faculty responsibilities in research, teaching and service.     

Social Policy Practice

This paper identifies and discusses issues for a school of social work in the context of collective bargaining. Attention is given to the implications of collective bargaining on a professional social work program. The paper is based on a theoretical framework and an experience of approximately three years in the advent and development of collective bargaining in a large midwestern public university. Major substantive areas discussed have to do with intragroup and intergroup relations among students, community professionals, faculty and administration; the definition of “work” and “work load”; and the reward system for promotion, tenure, and recognition of merit. Major implications relate to the concerns of professionalism, the balancing of. democratic participation and responsible management, and the codification in contract of social work's historical role in participatory decision making.     

Unionization and tenure and rank outcomes in Ohio Universities

We explore whether unionization affects tenure and promotion outcomes. Using data on 4,276 faculty from seven Ohio public universities, we find that unionization increases the probability that an individual will be tenured. Unionization also increases (decreases) the probability that an individual will be a full (assistant) professor. Moreover, unionization may standardize the promotion process across disciplines. The largest effect on the promotion process is related to length of service. Faculty who are with an institution longer are more likely to be tenured or in higher ranks. This result occurs for two reaization (1) The tenure and promotion processes are directly related to the number of years an individual works at an institution. Tenure decisions usually have time limitations, and although promotion decisions are not as directly tied to time, one generally becomes a full professor after the attainment of tenure and the rank of an associate professor; (2) Controlling for other factors, senior union faculty are more likely to be tenured or full professors, and they appear to be able to obtain higher ranks more easily. Our thanks to the session participants at the 1996 Missouri Valley Economics Association Conference, to Professor Michael Magura of the University of Toledo who provided most of the data and to an anonymous referree for insightful comments.     

University Tenure and the Legal System: Procedures,Conflicts, and Resolutions

Abstract

To better understand the increasing legal presence in cases and disputes involving tenure, the authors analyzed materials from court cases, employment law, and higher education. This analysis yielded knowledge about ways in which tenure as a contract, credentials as evidence, and due process contribute to orderly tenure procedures, thereby averting some legal conflicts. Academic, legal, and ethical perspectives were used to explore these concepts and to consider their implications for social work faculty confronted by the dual demands of academia and tenure review. Guidelines are provided to assist faculty in dealing with tenure review and dispute resolution in appeal and dismissal.     

Dismissal of a Sociologist: The AAUP Report on Carl C. Taylor1

ABSTRACT The dismissal in 1931 of a distinguished sociologist, Carl C. Taylor, after 11 years as an influential faculty member, and the investigation by the American Association of University Professors which followed has received little attention in the literature on the history of sociology. Taylor did not have the security of a tenure system. Years later, he received an honorary degree from the same institution, now North Carolina State University, from which he had been dismissed. This paper makes accessible the AAUP's full report on the Taylor case and highlights his career and contributions. The AAUP report summarizes alternative explanations for the dismissal, concluding that the compelling cause was not the budgetary pressures cited by the president of the university. Our interpretation is that the university president had Taylor dismissed because of deterioration in their interpersonal relations and the cumulative effect of anti-liberal, conservative forces in the state at the time.     

Diversity in the Academy: On the Growing Prominence of Race and Ethnicity in the Pacific Sociological Association, 1929–2014

This article examines issues related to the underrepresentation of faculty of color in higher education, with specific attention to the discipline of Sociology and the Pacific Sociological Association (PSA). The authors explore the role that professional organizations such as the PSA have played in promoting racial and ethnic diversity within the Sociology pipeline. Further, it provides an analytic overview of the history of conference presentations on the topic of race and ethnicity within the PSA over the last eight decades. The article proceeds in three major parts: First, is an outline of the contours of the problem of racial underrepresentation in the academy. Next, follows a content analysis of PSA programs, which indicates that race continues to be of central importance to the PSA and that the 1970s were a turning point when the PSA began to examine its role in promoting diversity in the discipline. Finally, mentorship is presented as a critical vehicle for promoting greater racial equity in the PSA and the discipline of Sociology more broadly.     

Unsettling Universities' Incongruous,Gendered Bureaucratic Structures: A Case‐study Approach

Recent research shows that women faculty members in academia continue to face systemic barriers to opportunity and advancement and that these barriers are particularly strong in science and engineering, and in university administration. University administrators and faculty members, however, have been slow to recognize that systemically gendered barriers will have to be reduced or eliminated in order for women faculty to advance in their careers. One key problem is that many, if not most, leaders in powerful decision‐making roles in universities continue to embrace women‐centred explanations for gender disparities in advancement through the academic ranks. University leaders' lack of recognition of institutionalized gender barriers suggests the need for greater dissemination of research findings (and training) about how systemic barriers operate and why these barriers disproportionately disadvantage women. In this article I first theorize universities as incongruous, gendered bureaucratic structures. I then outline an intervention strategy for enabling university faculty members and administrators to see incongruous, gendered bureaucratic structures and to then use this knowledge to develop strategies for addressing the problem of women's underrepresentation among science and engineering faculty. The strategy described is a case‐study approach recently implemented at a mid‐sized research‐intensive university in the US Midwest. The workshop was part of a broader university programme aimed at transforming the university's cultures, practices and structures in ways that help to enhance the recruitment, retention and promotion of women scientists. I conclude by discussing the benefits and limitations of the case‐study approach as a method for unsettling accepted knowledge about the gendered structures and normative practices of the university.     

Navigating the gendered academy: women in social work academia

ABSTRACT

Women fare less well than men across all academic disciplines: they are less likely to be promoted, they earn less, and many more professors are men. There has, however, been little analysis to date of the experience of women in social work education, a discipline that has historically had higher representation of female staff and students. This study set out to explore women in the social work academy through a case-study of social work education in Scotland. A mixed-methods approach was used, including a review of relevant literature; an online survey of women and men academics in social work education; and semi-structured interviews with female social work leaders, past and present. The study found that women in the social work academy faced the same pressures as other women in higher education; some of these pressures were also shared by men. Most significant, however, was the extent to which women in social work academia experienced twin challenges, firstly, as female academics and secondly, as female social work academics in a discipline that struggles for recognition in the academy. We conclude that this makes for a contradictory and, at times, ambiguous experience for women as they navigate the gendered academy.     

Gender differences in faculty attrition in the USA

In this study, we examined possible gender differences in reasons for faculty attrition during the last 20 years at a small women's liberal arts college. The attrition rate was calculated from archival data collected through old college directories. As in earlier studies, the attrition rate was higher for women (31%) than for men (18.5%). Reasons for leaving the college were assessed in an online survey completed by 45 out of 66 tenure-track or tenured professors who left (excluding retirees). Work–family conflict was the most frequently cited reason for leaving, with disproportionately more women than men giving this reason. Open-ended responses revealed that work–family conflict typically referred to the difficulty of coordinating two careers. Female faculty who left were also significantly more dissatisfied than males with the support for balancing work and family life at the college. The need for colleges to create spousal policies to help faculty coordinate dual careers was discussed.