PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 27, No. 14, Feb. 21, 2008

Workgroup examining gender and global equity concerns

By Sharita Forrest, Assistant Editor
217-244-1072; slforres@uiuc.edu

Click photo to enlarge Photo by L. Brian Stauffer Fostering inclusivity Cris Mayo, left, interim director of the Gender and Women’s Studies Program and a professor of gender and women’s studies, and Gale Summerfield, a professor of human and community development and director of the Women and Gender in Global Perspectives Program, co-chair the Council on Gender Equity. The council is examining gender equity concerns on campus and exploring ways to foster an inclusive environment.

The Council on Gender Equity, a standing committee formed by Provost Linda Katehi, is examining gender equity concerns on campus and exploring ways to foster an inclusive environment. The council merges two previous campus committees, the Chancellor’s Committee on the Status of Women, formed in 1971 to identify issues affecting all women in the campus community, and the Gender Equity Planning Team, a team that Katehi formed in 2006 to examine key gender equity concerns on campus as well as global equity issues in which Illinois may have a significant impact.

A report issued by the CCSW in 1999 indicated that women made up 21 percent of the campus faculty and only 11 percent of full professors at that time.

When the Gender Equity Planning Team examined the 2006-07 data, women composed 29 percent of the faculty and 18.7 percent of the full professors at Urbana. Although the number of women at the rank of full professor had increased over the previous decade, the campus still ranks second from last among Big Ten peers in its percentage of female full professors. Among traditionally male-dominated fields, such as the sciences and engineering, the disparities are even greater.

“People love to argue that we aren’t really comparable because we have more engineering and science and less social work and such, but that just redirects the focus from the real issues because we still are on the low side and have a serious issue to deal with on campus,” said Gale Summerfield, a professor of human and community development and director of the Women and Gender in Global Perspectives Program who was a planning team member. “The provost is interested in action-oriented interventions. With the support of the Chancellor’s Office and the Provost’s Office, we’re making sure that we look at ways to intervene in some of the problematic practices and trends that continue.”

In a report dated June 3, the planning team recommended a number of actions organized under three broad categories: increasing the number of female faculty members and students in underrepresented units, institutionalizing gender inequity initiatives, and redefining the workplace culture.

Among the problematic practices identified in the planning team’s report were a lack of transparency in the processes for promotions, raises, awards and retention offers; inequities in allocation of space and resources; and exclusionary recruiting practices. The planning team recommended conducting bias issues training for deans and unit leaders, establishing and communicating clear guidelines, goals and incentives for recruiting and retention of underrepresented faculty members, and developing an administrative framework for assessment and evaluation.

“Once you look at the ways that search committees initially screen out women or people of color or people who are not traditionally in whatever program it is, you realize that people are being excluded,” said Cris Mayo, interim director of the Gender and Women’s Studies Program and a professor of gender and women’s studies. “Once you intervene in that, departments change their culture and start bringing in people they hadn’t looked at before, either because they haven’t known how to incorporate them socially or they haven’t known how to mentor them, not known how to read their curricula vitae or hadn’t even considered the possibility that either a woman or an underrepresented minority might be appropriate. People very often don’t realize the kind of exclusionary practices they engage in until it’s pointed out to them.”

Summerfield and Mayo are co-chairing the Council on Gender Equity, which is working with various other groups on campus that address related issues, such as the Diversity Committee; the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Concerns Committee; and the Promotion and Tenure Review Committee; to ensure an integrated, coordinated response and to share resources and insights.

A subcommittee of the council is preparing to issue a request for proposals about action-oriented projects that could begin this semester and receive seed funding from the campus. Another subcommittee is exploring ways of heightening awareness of existing campus programs, such as the Target of Opportunity program and the Dual-Career Partners Program, which could be used to increase representation of underrepresented groups. A third subcommittee is working with the Division of Management Information to gather data on relevant issues, such as rates of promotion, recruitment and time to tenure.

“I think it’s good for us to do this data collection to show where there are areas on campus that have already had success,” Mayo said. “These are programs that have been used successfully, that have changed the character of departments, improved education at the university and are drawing in different populations of students because the students are now seeing themselves reflected in their mentors. Some areas of the university are beginning to look like the population of the state that we’re serving, and that’s a very important thing.”

“This isn’t just for women or people of color or any of the marginalized groups,” Summerfield said. “It really is a way of making this a better institution and making us a world leader in areas that are crucial to current educational needs. You really want to draw on the full pool of talent and not be excluding half the population or more.”

Recommendations of the Gender Equity Planning Team for transforming the gender equity climate on campus

• Increase the percentage of female faculty members and students in underrepresented units

  • Initiate training for administrators and search committees, emphasizing active recruiting; expand funding for Faculty Excellence hires; develop effective retention strategies at the college level; increase the pipeline by improving strategies to recruit and retain female undergraduate and graduate students and by expanding external funding.

• Institutionalize gender equity initiatives

  • Establish a committee to evaluate progress on gender equity issues, collect and disseminate data, hold units and administrators accountable for meeting goals, establish an annual provost’s lecture on gender equity, promote activities to learn from and engage with specialists on gender equity issues locally and globally.

• Redefine workplace culture

  • Increase transparency by developing/communicating clear metrics for raises, promotions, awards, resource allocation, retention offers and start-up packages.

  • Improve workplace environment by instituting gender equity training, continuing to expand child-care facilities and sick child/family care, encourage development of more family restrooms across campus, encourage family friendly meeting and lecture times

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