Breaking through a glass ceiling

In the early 1960s, Penn's English Department invited Phyllis Rackin and two other women to join its faculty in 1962. And, in the beginning, they were received warmly.

"I was kind of like a pet," she said. "I can't say I was treated the same as the men. I was treated better."

But that changed when Rackin was denied tenure and a promotion in 1969.

"I think [the department chairman] sincerely thought I was unworthy," she said. I think he thought all women were unworthy."

So she filed a lawsuit against the University, alleging discriminatory practices. In 1975, the case was settled in her favor, and she finally received tenure and her promotion. Her case changed the procedures for granting tenure, and, in 1974, Penn adopted a formal affirmative action policy to further female and minority hiring.

Since then, women have made their presence felt at all levels of the University. They teach and chair departments. They sit on the University Board of Trustees. And the highest administrative position belongs to a female -- University President Judith Rodin.

While academia is no longer the male-dominated world that it once was, it is still not a world of equals. Women in academia still face a number of obstacles. These obstacles vary in number, severity and form -- from department to department and woman to woman, but they exist.

"We've got a significant residue from the old boys' network," Biochemistry Professor Phoebe Leboy said.

It was from this institution that Professor Madeline Joullie, one of two tenured females in the 25-member chemistry faculty, received her Ph.D. in organic chemistry in 1953. Since then, she has dedicated the last several decades to teaching the science she loves. But at one point, she was only assigned female students.

"Students used to be very uncomfortable with a female teacher," said Computer Information and Science Professor Ruzena Bajcsy, who joined the Engineering School in 1972.

Joullie often felt the pressures of being different among her colleagues. They all seemed to think alike, and they were fairly conservative. And as a result, she sometimes felt like she wasn't allowed to express an opinion.

English Professor Nina Auerbach can remember feeling similarly at times, joining the University in the early 1970s at a state of flux as the old boys' network that once ran the academic world broke down. Still, Auerbach remembers some hardships at the beginning.

"I felt like some sort of Jezebel in their eyes," she said.

However, she arrived just as serious progress was being made. According to a report presented by the Faculty on the Status of Women in 1970, only 7 percent of the tenured faculty at the professional level were women. By 2000, this percentage had more than tripled.

The increased female faculty presence has meant that the issues women face in academia have changed, and in many cases they have diminished.

Material Sciences Professor Dawn Bonnell said that being one of only three female full-professors in Engineering has not adversely affected her or her career. She readily admits that her field is "certainly male-dominated," and that "there is a different way you interact in an all male environment."

But English professor Toni Bowers, a single parent, found female support within her department critical because she feels that the University does not offer enough support to single parents.

The "juggling act" is one that all professionals face, married or single, but many say this balancing act falls more heavily on women.

"The time burdens of parenting fall disproportionately on women, even for highly educated women," Legal Studies and Management professor Janice Bellace said.

"You can't be a super housewife and a super mom and a super scientist," Bajcsy said. "So, you have to comprise."

And that is precisely what female faculty members have done, but most women feel a certain sense of guilt as they try and balance career and family.

Bowers warned,"When you look at women who have succeeded, you have to look at what trade-offs they've made."

But there is a common feeling among Penn's female faculty now that the glass ceiling has disappeared, or at the very least, risen tremendously.

"Discrimination is not what it used to be," Joullie said. "It can't be. It's more subtle."

"The bottom line is 'have we made progress?'" Joullie said. "Yes, we have, and a lot of it."

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