Women profs tenured more often than men

Female professors at the University receive timely tenure at a higher rate than male professors do, a report issued last month revealed. The report, compiled by the deputy provost's office, lists the number of men and women who were approved and turned down for timely tenure, which occurs after an instructor has been on a tenure track for five years. The report does not include faculty who were hired with tenure or faculty who were granted tenure before five years. Deputy Provost Richard Clelland, whose office has been publishing similar data for the past ten years, said in the report that the study shows that the timely tenure review process is not biased. "The Office of the Deputy Provost began publishing this data series in response to rather heated charges that the internal tenure review process was biased against women," the report states. "After ten years at a time when the timely tenure percentage for women has slightly exceeded that for men, it seems clear that this claim has no substance -- as far as timely tenure is concerned." The report states that questions remain concerning the granting of tenure before five years, the hiring of faculty with tenure, and the proportions of tenured faculty who leave the University. Concern about tenure review arose after former Associate Management Professor Rosalie Tung filed sexual and racial discrimination charges against the University in 1985, claiming that the University denied her tenure because of her race and sex. Faculty were pleased that the research had been done. "It's excellent that the provost has done this analysis," said Biochemistry Professor Phoebe Leboy. "It's a whole lot better then it used to be." But Leboy, a vocal women's activist, agreed that there were still questions to be answered. "It would be very useful to look at other aspects, people brought in from outside with tenure, other people brought up relatively early," Leboy said. "I think it would be very useful and shouldn't be difficult to find early tenure and put those numbers in. It would be a little more difficult to include people brought in from the outside."

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