A chilly climate hinders a department's ability to recruit and retain women—and a closer look often shows that a chilly climate stems from gender bias. Gender bias in the academy can throw unfair obstacles in the paths of women with and without children and hamper fathers in their attempts to co-parent. Besides harming the careers and livelihoods of professors, administrators and others, these patterns of behavior negatively impact an institution's financial resources and slow the progress of scholarship.[1]

Gender bias falls into four basic patterns: The Maternal Wall, Double Standards, Double Binds, and Gender Wars. Universities can take steps to control gender bias at all stages of the academic career by developing and publicizing family-responsive policies and by training all faculty, especially chairs and deans, to recognize and combat bias.[2]

Hiring

Issue
At a time when resources are declining and the demand for financial aid is increasing, colleges and universities must identify opportunities for reducing costs without negatively affecting their competitive edge and reputation for academic excellence. In this context, effective programs to address gender bias become even more important.
 
WLL has an online training on gender bias aimed at women professors as well as an in-person training called, “Four Patterns of Gender Bias: Strategies to Address Them.” For Faculty chairs, WLL offers an in-person training which is titled, “How to Steal the Talent” and does not advertise itself as a gender bias training. Resources on best practices for effective implementation of policies are also available upon request.

Offer Gender Bias Training to Faculty Search Committees

Issue
Academia is unusual in that most human resource decisions are made by professors who receive no training on how to avoid potential lawsuits or how to avoid gender and racial bias. Increased awareness of these issues among faculty search committees and department chair will go a long way in recruiting and retaining the top talent.

Online Training and Refresher Courses
The University of Florida requires that every search committee member participate in an online training module that discusses how to assess gaps in a candidate’s resume.[3] After faculty members complete the online tutorial, they are required to take “refresher” courses every three years to maintain their knowledge of fair and effective recruiting practices.[4]

Case Western Reserve University publishes a toolkit for equitable faculty searches, emphasizing that “diversity is a process, not an outcome.” The Office of Faculty Diversity offers resources at each stage of the recruitment process, as well as readings and resources to educate its faculty on gender bias.[5]
 
Recruitment Toolkits Tailored to Each Search
In addition to a published booklet on recruiting and retaining a diverse faculty[6], the Office of Faculty Development and Diversity at Stanford University meets with each search chair and/or committee and designs a “Faculty Recruitment Toolkit” that is tailored for each search. This toolkit includes information about opportunities for outreach, AAU data on applicant pools, materials on unexamined bias, and legal guidelines for basic interviews.[7]

Interactive Workshop for Department Chairs and Search Committees
Cornell University and the Cornell Interactive Theatre Ensemble have developed a workshop for department chairs and search committees on how to avoid gender bias in the hiring process. The interactive theater session, called “It Depends on the Lens,” has been presented multiple times at Cornell to department chairs, search committee chairs, and search committees. Other universities have hired the Theatre Ensemble to perform this workshop as well. In the workshop sessions, participants watch a DVD scenario and engage the ensemble actors in discussions based on the video, facilitated by a moderator. The session concludes with a discussion of the ADVANCE Center’s best practices for combating subconscious bias in faculty searches.[8] More information on the workshops including excerpts from the video can be found here.

Monitor the Faculty Search Process

Issue
Even if the members of a search committee are aware of the steps required to ensure an equitable search process and are trained to identify gender bias, it remains important to have a monitoring process in place at the institutional level.

Appoint an Equity Advisor For Each Search Committee
The University of California, Irvine convenes a group of senior faculty representing all schools as “Equity Advisors.” These advisors are appointed as Faculty Assistant to the Dean in their respective schools and participate in faculty recruiting by approving search strategies and raise awareness of best practices. The equity advisors meet monthly and receive ongoing training and materials to support their role. In addition to monitoring search processes, the equity advisors organize faculty development programs, offer formal and informal mentoring, and address individual issues raised by women faculty.[9]
 
Institutionalize Use of Candidate Evaluation Tools for the Faculty Search Process     
In conjunction with the equity advisor program described above, the University of California, Irvine (Forms UCI AP-80 a,b, and c) has institutionalized a three part search monitoring process. A form must be completed at each stage of the process to ensure that the position was advertised widely to a diverse applicant pool and that there is no significant discrepancy between the application pool availability and the short list of invited candidates. The equity advisor has signing authority at each stage of the process and approval is required to continue from one stage to the next.
 
Cornell University’s ADVANCE program developed a Candidate Evaluation and Feedback Form for search committee members that was adapted from the University of Michigan ADVANCE Program. This tool was developed as a systematic and accountable method to minimize bias during the candidate evaluation process. Cornell has put its form online here.[10]

Prevent Gender Bias during Negotiation (Double Bind Avoidance)

Issue
Women often find it more difficult than their male colleagues to negotiate aggressively for their hiring packages without being perceived negatively. As such, their initial starting packages often pale in comparison to those of their male peers—which can carry with it long-term career consequences.

Resource Negotiation
Some department chairs at the University of Michigan negotiate for resources with a list of requested items from potential new hires. According to a faculty member from one such department:

Before the second visit/interview, the Chair requested that I draw up and forward to him a list of equipment that I would need to conduct my research. Before our interview, he reviewed the list to determine what equipment was already available ("used" or as community property). Then, during our interview, he told me what community equipment would be available to me, what "used but working" equipment would be deeded to me, and the sum of money that he had determined would be sufficient to allow me to purchase the remaining items (based on the cost estimates that I had provided). This distribution was negotiable; one costly item that they expected I would share with the other members of the department was in fact something my lab would use heavily and would therefore need to purchase new. Once I explained the situation, the Chair agreed and the cash portion of my start-up package was adjusted accordingly.[11]

Confidential Negotiation Counseling
The ADVANCE program at Utah State University provided confidential and informal counseling for candidates considering job offers at the university. Candidates received consultation on what to negotiate for and how to negotiate, and had a forum to find answers to questions many potential faculty members may avoid asking of department chairs, such as childcare options and stop-the-clock policies.[12]

Advancement and Retention

Issue
Women are leaving academia at disproportionately high rates at every stage of their academic careers.[13] "It is essential to put in place programs to retain women in order to achieve a diverse faculty. If you don't have a department that appeals to women, you will limit your talent pool and may end up with a lesser candidate," according to Chancellor Blumenthal at the University of California, Santa Cruz.[14] Women with children are especially likely to leave academia because they see the one-size-fits-all academic career track as incompatible with childrearing, given inhospitable climates, inflexible schedules, and the lack of female academic parent role models. In fact, only one in three women who begins the tenure track without children ever has them.[15] Academic institutions will never retain proportionate numbers of women until women—like men—find they can have both careers and families.

Train Department Chairs to Manage Flexibility

Issue
While department chairs have critical roles in hiring, evaluating, and retaining faculty, traditionally they have had minimal training and know little about important university policies such as family leave. An untrained chair, for example, may unknowingly violate the Family and Medical Leave Act by conditioning leave on a faculty member finding his or her own teaching replacement. It is essential to train all chairs on how to implement family-responsive policies and manage with flexibility.

On-Line Faculty Booklet for Chairs and Deans
The University of California system, under the Family Friendly Edge program, created an online booklet for chairs and deans dedicated to improving the culture at the department level for encouraging usage of family-responsive policies. The toolkit discusses how departments can be family-responsive, lists legal do’s and don’ts, and provides examples of responses to requests for flexibility. The booklet also contains a chart outlining what types of leave are available by caregiver status and type of pay (i.e., paid or unpaid), so that both faculty and “gatekeepers” have the correct information.[16]

Guidelines for Family-Responsive Meeting Times
Texas A&M University implemented a university-wide Core Meeting Hours Guideline administered through the Dean of Faculties Office. The Guideline encouraged each department and unit to determine a subset of hours between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. in which it would be optimal to hold important meetings and functions so that all could attend while minimizing conflict with family responsibilities.[17]
 
“School for Chairs”
The UC Berkeley Family Friendly Edge conducts a "School for Chairs." Chairs are taught to discount resume gaps attributable to parenthood, mentor new parents through the tenure process, help find a second job for dual-career couples, create a more family-responsive climate through small changes such as ending faculty meetings by 5 p.m., and ensure that stopping the clock or taking family leave does not count against candidates. These policies and practices have helped UC Berkeley to increase its hiring rates for new women faculty from 26% to nearly 40% in the last few years.[18]

Leadership Workshops
At the University of Washington, the ADVANCE Center for Institutional Change (CIC) implemented quarterly half-day leadership workshops for chairs and emerging leaders. These workshops provide a chance to discuss best practices and strategies to advance women and underrepresented minorities in science, engineering, and mathematics.[19] Past topics include family leave and tenure-clock extensions, dual career hires, and building job offers. The CIC found that holding regular gatherings, using case studies, and asking faculty members to lead the discussion have been critical to their workshops' success.[20]

Mentoring Focused on Family Responsiveness
The University of California, Davis developed a Family Friendly Advisor/Mentor Program for department chairs and senior staff. UC Davis tries to have at least one department chair from each of its colleges, including the law school, as a mentor in the program so that information is equitably shared across the university. The advisors serve as a resource to colleagues on work-life issues, share their experiences, and assist with publicity and information about the university’s programs and policies in this area.[21]

Eliminate Bias: Clearly Communicate Policies to Internal and External Tenure Case Reviewers

Issue
Unfortunately, there are many stories of people who have stopped the tenure clock, only to encounter outside reviewers who ignore this fact. Inside and outside reviewers should be informed that, when a candidate has stopped the clock, the appropriate evaluation of the candidate should not be based on years from the Ph.D., but instead should tally only the countable time. In addition, to help protect against potential lawsuits, universities including Harvard, M.I.T., Stanford, and U.C. Berkeley, have adopted statements against bias against faculty who take leave or who stop the tenure clock. The standard text should be used in all correspondence about search committees and tenure rank matters.

The University of California, Davis has created language that explicitly states that faculty who are eligible to stop the clock shall not be arbitrarily disadvantaged for taking childbearing/childrearing leave or for stopping the clock.[22]
 
On a web page describing Duke University’s “Professional and Personal Balance Policies,” it is explicitly stated that “We tolerate no stigma for taking advantage of [the policies]; and our data show that both sexes do [take advantage of them].”[23] 

Offer Gender Bias Training to Faculty

Issue
Stereotyping can affect the behavior of even well-meaning faculty and administrators, and can penalize women in general, as well as mothers and others with caregiving responsibilities.[24] To make family-responsive policies effective, it is essential that all faculty, especially department chairs and deans, be trained to recognize and prevent gender bias.

Peer-Led Workshops by Request
The University of Michigan STRIDE program has created innovative programs to educate key faculty about the impact of unexamined bias. STRIDE has recruited full professors at the University of Michigan to participate in an ongoing committee that provides advice on strategies to recruit a diverse and well-qualified faculty. Committee members are offered teaching relief. Each member studies a recommended reading list and attends three half-days of training on diversity issues.[25] STRIDE committee members then lead workshops for departments, search committees, and other groups in which they educate their peers about unexamined gender and other biases.[26] The STRIDE program has been particularly effective because the committee members are well-respected and the training is provided only upon request. The STRIDE program has succeeded in increasing the percentage of female hires in science and engineering from 14% to 34% in a period of four years.[27]

Training Activities available to all departments
Penn State offers all departments the use of their Workshop Activity for Gender Equity Simulation (WAGES), an interactive demonstration (approximately 90 minutes) designed to illustrate how work-relevant gender inequities accumulate over time and are reflected in salary disadvantage and achievement of leadership positions. WAGES shows how inequity in women's salary and opportunities for advancement accumulate through the differential impact of work/family, evaluation of research efforts, and other issues that often have a gender-relevant component, such as access to mentoring. The activity uses a game board divided into three levels, each corresponding to a different phase in work life (Assistant, Associate, and Full Professor). The object of the activity is to advance through the three levels and be the first participant to reach Distinguished Professor. The activity is available for use at other institutions for a nominal charge to cover production of the materials and shipping.