Gender (in)equity in the academy: Subtle mechanisms and the production of inequality

Researchers have shifted in recent years from explanations that posit overt discrimination as the causal mechanism producing gender inequity, to more subtle forms of favoritism and/or barriers to advancement. Working in the latter tradition, we focus on how subtle sex biases help to produce inequality anew in the academy, through nonconscious beliefs and attitudes that operate through workplace interactions, and through the use of subjective policies and procedures institutionalized in the academic workplace. We examine these issues with qualitative and quantitative data from an Arts & Sciences (A&S) unit of a public research university. We use descriptive, quantitative data to assess the extent to which unequal gender outcomes persist in aggregate, and qualitative interview and survey data to gain insight into how specific mechanisms of inequity produce and maintain those outcomes.