Dataset Information

Gender and retention patterns among U.S. faculty.

ABSTRACT: Women remain underrepresented among faculty in nearly all academic fields. Using a census of 245,270 tenure-track and tenured professors at United States-based PhD-granting departments, we show that women leave academia overall at higher rates than men at every career age, in large part because of strongly gendered attrition at lower-prestige institutions, in non-STEM fields, and among tenured faculty. A large-scale survey of the same faculty indicates that the reasons faculty leave are gendered, even for institutions, fields, and career ages in which retention rates are not. Women are more likely than men to feel pushed from their jobs and less likely to feel pulled toward better opportunities, and women leave or consider leaving because of workplace climate more often than work-life balance. These results quantify the systemic nature of gendered faculty retention; contextualize its relationship with career age, institutional prestige, and field; and highlight the importance of understanding the gendered reasons for attrition rather than focusing on rates alone.

SUBMITTER: Spoon K

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10588949 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Gender and retention patterns among U.S. faculty.

Spoon Katie K LaBerge Nicholas N Wapman K Hunter KH Zhang Sam S Morgan Allison C AC Galesic Mirta M Fosdick Bailey K BK Larremore Daniel B DB Clauset Aaron A

Science advances 20231020 42

Women remain underrepresented among faculty in nearly all academic fields. Using a census of 245,270 tenure-track and tenured professors at United States-based PhD-granting departments, we show that women leave academia overall at higher rates than men at every career age, in large part because of strongly gendered attrition at lower-prestige institutions, in non-STEM fields, and among tenured faculty. A large-scale survey of the same faculty indicates that the reasons faculty leave are gendered ...[more]

PMID: 37862417

Similar Datasets

Project description:ImportancePoor retention may be associated with lack of faculty diversity in academic medicine.ObjectiveTo examine differences in faculty retention by gender, degree type, and race and ethnicity using data from US medical schools.Design, setting, and participantsThis cohort study analyzed data from 155 medical schools for 1978 to 2021, which were obtained from the Association of American Medical Colleges. Retention rates were calculated by gender, race and ethnicity, and degree type. Time to attrition was estimated using Kaplan-Meier curves and adjusted Cox proportional hazards models were used to examine the differences in retention by gender and race. Data were analyzed from March 2021 to November 2022.Main outcomes and measuresThe duration of continuous employment in academic medicine and variations in retention based on gender, race, ethnicity, and terminal degree.ResultsAmong 390 766 faculty members (232 829 [59.6%] men; 1190 American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander [0.3%]; 72 490 Asian [18.6%]; 14 920 Black [3.8%]; 20 345 Hispanic, Latino, of Spanish origin, or multirace Hispanic [5.2%]; 251 670 non-Hispanic White [64.4%] participants; and 30 151 [7.7%] other race), 259 628 (66.4%) had MD or MD-equivalent terminal degrees. Women left academic medicine a median of 1 year earlier (median retention, 8.33 years; 95% CI, 8.18-8.41 years) than men (median retention, 9.35 years; 95% CI, 9.25-9.42 years). Compared with White faculty (median retention, 9.91 years; 95% CI, 9.83-9.92 years), multiracial and faculty of other races had the lowest retention (median retention, 5.42 years; 95% CI, 5.33-5.55 years), followed by Alaska Native, American Indian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (median retention, 6.00 years; 95% CI, 5.62-6.62 years), Black (median retention, 7.78 years; 95% CI, 7.50-8.00 years), Asian (median retention, 8.00 years; 95% CI, 8.00-8.11 years) and Hispanic faculty (median retention, 9.00 years; 95% CI, 8.75-9.16 years). Women faculty in the 1970s were 20% more likely than men to leave academia, whereas women in the 2010s had no greater risk of leaving, mainly due to a decline in retention of men.Conclusions and relevanceGender differences in faculty retention have decreased in the most recent decade; however, men had lower retention compared with earlier cohorts. In this study, faculty who were underrepresented in medicine left academic medicine a median of 1 to 4 years earlier than White faculty. Greater attrition among men and women for recent cohorts suggests that enhanced retention efforts are imperative to maintain an experienced and diverse faculty.

Dataset Information

Gender and retention patterns among U.S. faculty.

Publications

Gender and retention patterns among U.S. faculty.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets