Faculty gender gap 'deplorable' to some
By Amanda Geerts
Staff Writers

Your chances of dying of cardiovascular disease are greater than having a female full professor teach one of your Albion College classes.

Only two of the 42 full professors listed in the 1995-96 faculty roster are women. The roster also states:

... There are 13 tenured females and 60 tenured males. (Tenure-track faculty are assistant professors, associate professors and full professors.)

... There are 17 females and eight males in non-tenure-track positions. But these numbers are no surprise.

Last spring's Status of Women report, released by the women's studies committee, presented similar comparisons of women's status among the Albion College Board of Trustees, the president's cabinet, faculty and students.

The report established a baseline, according to Trisha Franzen, director of the Anna Howard Shaw Center for Women's Studies and Programs and co-author of the report.

"[There was] a need to assess where we are because you can't figure out if you're making progress unless you have some baseline," she said, according to the April 21 Pleiad. "We seem to be having a hard time making progress."

Compared to other Great Lakes Colleges Association schools, Albion falls behind on male/female faculty ratios. In 1990, 31 percent of Ohio Wesleyan University's faculty were women. In 1993, 36 percent of Denison University's faculty were women. This compares to Albion's 27 percent in the 1993-94 academic year.

According to the report, women's representation is less than it was 40 years ago. "Women are a smaller percentage of the faculty today than in 1952-53," the report states.

This is a "deplorable situation," according to Judith Lockyer, associate professor of English and chair of the gender/ethnicity committee.

"We have a number of women faculty who are certainly qualified for that all-important legitimacy [full professorship]." The only two female full professors are Ingeborg Baumgartner, professor of foreign languages, and Elizabeth Brumfiel, professor of anthropology and sociology. There is a 40 percent retention rate of female faculty, compared to 70 percent for men.

But numbers don't tell the entire story. "To be intellectually honest about this, we must go case-by-case and see who left and why," said Leonard Berkey, professor and chair of anthropology and sociology. "Only then can one ask, 'Is there a pattern in the reasons they [the women] leave?'"

Women have increased in one area: the number of female students enrolled. In 1973, 47.7 percent of the full-time student body was female.

The student body now has a slight female majority. Out of 1,560 degree-seeking students, 796 are women... 51 percent of the total enrollment, according to Karen Neal, registrar.

But this number could be much higher. "More women [than men] apply and get accepted, but then go somewhere else," Neal said. But "there is no specific trend or pattern in the attrition of students."

Franzen said,"The entire campus has to make it [diversity] a priority. We're clearly not doing everything we could be doing."

Berkey said people should ask, "How do we increase the number of women on faculty?" instead of, "Who is to blame for the declining number of women?"

Franzen suggested following the Status of Women recommendations, such as hiring women at senior levels and setting goals for hiring, retention, and promotion of women faculty... especially women of color. "It's not just a matter of gender, it's a matter of ethnicity," Franzen said.

The report also advised researching issues such as family leave policies and flexible tenure schedules. What is needed is "a greater recognition of the less formal work that women do," Franzen said.

One way this is being done is through the college's "In Honor of Albion Women: a Year-Long Celebration." Its major events include a GLCA women's art show, Feb. 17, and Anna Howard Shaw Week, March 18-23. The grand finale is GLCA's 20th Annual Women's Studies Conference, hosted by Albion, April 12-13.

These events will recognize the work of female faculty, but the status report still sums it up best: "The norm at Albion College continues to be male."