Gender Differences in the Path to Full Professor at Two Liberal Arts Colleges in the United States

This paper examines whether gender, rank, and barriers to promotion affected how satisfied faculty at two highly selective private liberal arts colleges in the northeastern United States were about their opportunity for advancement in rank.  A work climate survey was sent to the entire population of 341 tenured and tenure track faculty at the two colleges, one formerly all male and the other formerly all female.  The response rate was 70%, yielding 237 respondents.  Multiple regression was used to examine factors predicting faculty satisfaction with their career progression.  College of employment, gender, rank, and promotion barriers were significantly associated with faculty satisfaction with their opportunities for advancement in rank.  Faculty at the former men’s college were more satisfied with their opportunities for advancement in rank than faculty at the former women’s college.  The former men’s college has two pathways for promotion to full professor, including one that does not require a significant publication record, while the former women’s college does not.  While gender had no effect at the former men’s college, female faculty at the former women’s college were less satisfied than their male peers with their opportunities for advancement.  In contrast, rank had no effect at the former women’s college, but associate professors were less satisfied than full professors with their opportunities for advancement at the former men’s college.  These results suggest that more support for associate professors and female faculty from the time they are tenured until they are promoted to full professor would improve their satisfaction.  Colleges need to provide sufficient resources, including time, to enable faculty to complete the work necessary for promotion to full professor.  They also need to provide feedback to associate professors about their progress towards promotion to full professor.  Finally, they need to protect associate professors from too heavy a service burden.