It’s a balancing act.
Sociology lecturer Marika Lindholm juggles writing and researching papers with teaching classes and caring for her six children. Because her kids and her teaching duties usually take up most of the day, she has got into the habit of digging into her research and writing late at night.
“We as a society have gender expectations about unpaid labor,” she said. “Women tend to do the unpaid care work.”
Although half the people in the world and about 45 percent of the people who receive doctoral degrees in the U.S. are women, only 26 percent of Northwestern’s professors are female, according to a 2004-05 university report. This number reflects the number of women in tenured and tenure-track positions.
Female faculty members jumped from 309 last fall to 324 this fall. But because the number of faculty also increased, women still make up only 26 percent of the faculty.
Women are under-represented in many fields of study, especially engineering and the sciences.
“With the continued effort of members of the community, we trust that the representation of women on the faculty will grow not only in numbers but also as a percentage of the total continuing faculty body,” the report stated.
The Faculty Diversity Committee, a 13-member group chaired by Provost Lawrence Dumas, produced the report.
Professors attribute the low percentage of female professors to family responsibilities and the smaller pool of female applicants, especially in the sciences and engineering.
Family responsibilities don’t always jibe with the rigorous six-year process to making tenure, female professors said. Demands vary between departments. But in many fields, earning tenure requires extensive research and published papers.
“It’s hellish and brutal,” said sociology Prof. Nicola Beisel, who made tenure years ago and has no children. “But I wasn’t fighting my own biological clock to do it.”
Hiring committees look for people at the top of their fields, Beisel said, and “the word ‘brilliant’ is more likely to be used to describe men than women.”
Engineering isn’t always attractive to women because it has a reputation for confining people in small cubicles with large calculators, according to Ellen Worsdall, the assistant dean for student affairs in McCormick. But people don’t always realize that those jobs also require creativity.
Worsdall tries to attract young women to the science fields with the Society of Women Engineers, a student group that goes to schools to work with children interested in engineering.
“(Girls) definitely have the aptitude, it’s just that they’re not encouraged,” she said.
NU does have several programs to help professors balance work and family, according to Katie Krauch, the manager of worklife, child and family resources in the human resources department.
The support group provides lists of childcare resources in Evanston. Fifty-two of the 112 daycare spots at Kindercare, a facility near the Chicago campus, are reserved for NU faculty and students.
Childcare is key, especially for professors who are just starting out, Lindholm said. It helps to be able to see the children during lunch or right after school. Increased maternity leave would also be helpful, she said. Lindholm is originally from Sweden, where men must take off days for their kids.
The diversity committee’s report also said a NU’s family leave policies are under review, in accordance with findings of the Committee on Women in the Academic Community at NU.
Being a female professor has its highlights as well as its drawbacks, though, Lindholm said. Teaching students, she has built-in babysitters. Campus activities give her access to music and sports.
And, like many students, it’s not unusual to get a day off on Fridays.
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