Does increased representation help or hurt female faculty? A multilevel analysis of research productivity and departmental context

Stephen R. PorterAssociate Professor of Research and Evaluation

Educational Leadership and Policy StudiesIowa State University

Introduction

Long-standing interest in male-female productivity gap; productivity determines salary and promotion prospects.

Very little research has focused on the context of the faculty member’s department, one of the central organizations in academia.

Goal of the paper is to understand how the proportion of female faculty in a department affects the research productivity of female faculty.

Theoretical approaches

Social contact theory predicts that as the proportion of females in a department increases, female faculty should thrive.

Competition theory posits that increasing the proportion of females will lead to greater conflict among faculty, as the majority group believes that their access to resources is threatened by the minority.

Conflicting empirical predictions: as the proportion of female faculty increase, female faculty members will either be better off or worse off.

Role of resources in female faculty success.

Data

2001 HERI Faculty Survey Institutional response rate was 16%. Faculty response rate was 41%.

Analyzed only female, full-time faculty with the title of assistant, associate or full professor at research and doctoral institutions.

For departmental measures, male and female faculty responses are used.

Faculty in departments with less than five respondents are excluded from the analysis.

Dependent variable

“How many of your professional writings have been published or accepted for publication in the last two years?”

Due to estimation issues, this categorical ordinal variable has been dichotomized into low productivity (0-2) and high productivity categories (3 or more publications).

Independent variables

Individual Age Race/ethnicity Marital status Highest degree is Ph.D. Rank Appointment within 2

years Career interruption Stress level due to

dependents Satisfaction with

office/lab space

Departmental Biglan (h/p, h/a, s/p) % female Mean satisfaction with

office/lab space % female*space

Institutional Public Research I Research II Doctoral I Expenditures per FTE

student

Analytical approach

Because the HERI Faculty Survey is not a simple random sample, clustered nature of the data must be taken into account.

Used a dichotomous logistic multilevel regression model with three levels of data (faculty, departments and institutions), survey weights, and a randomized intercept.

Results

Individual level Higher P(productive): associate and full professors,

faculty with Ph.D. Lower P(productive): older faculty, faculty with recent

appt.

Institutional level Higher P(productive): faculty at Research I and II

institutions.

Departmental level Proportion of female faculty, mean satisfaction with

space, and interaction term statistically significant (p<.05).

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

0.00 0.25 0.50 0.75 1.00

Proportion of female faculty

P(p

rod

uc

tiv

e) Space: not satisfied

Space: marginally satisfied

Space: satisfied

Space: very satisfied

Conclusion

Proportion of female faculty in a department does have an effect on productivity, but size and direction is contingent on resources.

Proportion of female faculty matters when resources are low.