Are you a college or university administrator, department chair, member of a hiring or tenure committee, female professor and/or an academic with family responsibilities? This section describes patterns of gender bias in the academy that are important to recognize. Then, read on to learn about steps you can take to prevent and stop it.

What's in It For the Academy:
How attracting and retaining women faculty builds intellectual and financial capital. >

Best Practice Policies to Retain Women >

Gender Bias in Academia: Findings from Focus Groups >

Share Your Experiences. >

The ivy-covered walls of our nation's academic institutions have long been havens for research and teaching and incubators of discovery. But hidden gender bias can hinder the progress of these intellectual pursuits. Deep-seated biases, whether we are aware of them or not, can throw unfair obstacles in the paths of women with and without children, hinder fathers in their attempts to co-parent, and more. Besides harming the careers and livelihoods of professors, administrators and others, these patterns of behavior ultimately impact an institution's financial resources and slow the progress of scholarship these institutions were founded to sustain. Simply becoming more aware of these biases and learning new ways to interact can make a profound difference.

Patterns of Gender Bias in the Academic Workplace

Double Standards: Women have to work harder to prove competence.

Women may feel they have to "work twice as hard to get half as far"; their abilities may be questioned while their male counterparts' competence is assumed. 

Men are often judged on their potential, while women must rely on their achievements. He may be considered a "nascent scholar" who just needs the opportunity to show what he's made of; she is more likely to be seen as a novice who has not yet met the publication requirements expected for promotion.[2]

I’ve seen promotion decisions where a man will be called into full professor without current funding, just with something submitted and pending, versus a woman who was not to be considered until she could demonstrate that she could renew her existing grant that still had time left in it.

Provide Training for All Departmental Chairs on Gender Bias >>

DO YOU RECOGNIZE THESE SCENARIOS?

What's luck got to do with it?

Men's successes are often attributed to their innate abilities, while women may be said to have "lucked out" due to circumstances (such as a sympathetic committee).[3]

We’re having a department head search right now, and there’s one female candidate. A lot of the departmental gossip is that, well, she will get the position because she is a woman and the administration wants to have more female department heads. And it’s driving me insane! There’s no discussion of her competency.

Provide Training for All Departmental Chairs on Gender Bias >>

Risk-taking men vs. mistake-making women.

Men who take risks and fail are often let off the hook more easily than women, with their failures being written off to poor conditions as opposed to women's mistakes being caused by character flaws ("She doesn't manage her time well. Does she really have the drive and focus for this?").[4]

One of my colleagues I was on an excavation with [said], "I don't want to bring women students anymore!" because we had a couple [of women] last year who were a real problem. He also had a real problem with a male student that year, but he wasn’t saying, "Oh I'm not going to bring the guys anymore." I see that kind of thing a lot.

Provide Training for All Departmental Chairs on Gender Bias >>

She who hesitates is timid.

Thoughtful women are considered hesitant or timid. On the other hand, men who carefully consider their options before making a decision are considered prudent. Why the difference? Men benefit from the assumption of competence while women do not.[5]

Prove it... and prove it again.

Women may have to prove their worth again and again, since they frequently do not start from the baseline assumption of competence.[6]

I had a six hundred thousand dollar mass spec, and they sent someone from Russia to train me how to use it. And the man would not believe that it was mine. For the first week he was there, he kept asking me whose it was, who’s signing off. He really had a really hard time. Sometimes I feel like it’s frustrating when you can’t surmount people’s stereotypes. For over a week, I wasn’t allowed to sit at the console and [run it].

Why can't they just let it go? 

Women's mistakes can haunt them much longer than those of their male colleagues. Why does this "recall bias" occur? Because information that confirms and reinforces a stereotype (such as "women are incompetent") is more easily recalled than information that contradicts a stereotype.[7]

Superstar problem

While superstar women may fare very well, women who are merely excellent tend to get sharply lower evaluations than comparable men. Women who "push the envelope" or are otherwise non-traditional teachers are at a greater risk of receiving sharply negative student evaluations. [8]

I was told on a teacher evaluation that I was a power grubbing woman, and that I should get off my horse. I doubt very much that [men] would get, "You’re a power hungry man, get off your horse."

One of my friends was teaching the first course that engineers take in physics. And engineers apparently don't like these courses. She was leaving class and she heard these two students saying, "Can you believe it? They gave us a woman to teach this class!" I mean, they were just irate. "How could they possibly have done this to us? This is awful!" The students were really negative about it and she was a wonderful teacher. She's now gone to another university.

You're in... but not all the way in.

Once hired, female professors may encounter additional barriers, such as a department head who acts as a gatekeeper of information, selectively opening doors of opportunity to a chosen few, and leaving the women out.[9] 

My department is very cohesive, and every morning the guys in the department get together and go out for coffee. Generally if I show up, I'm the only woman. And often they talk about basketball, sports, skiing over the weekend, but every once in awhile, if there's some issue in the department about the department head, or funding, that gets discussed too, and they're all in a loop. And the women don't know. It’s a subtle thing. I mean, they are not actively excluding anybody, but because the other women aren't showing up, they're all missing out on this.

When I was at [graduate school], all the men would go to a local bar, and so much got accomplished at those meetings. They asked all the male post docs. There were two female post docs at that time, myself and one other woman. We just started going to that bar and getting a table near the men and sitting down. And eventually we were included, once they saw that we actually could drink beer without blowing into a million pieces. [Ultimately] that was one of the most educational parts and one of the largest mentoring experiences that either one of us had as part of our post doc experience. But we never would have been privy to it or invited to it, and I wouldn't have done it by myself. But fortunately I had a female colleague and between the two of us, we could do it.

Establish Mentoring Programs to Support Junior Faculty >>

Double jeopardy

African American women can trigger racial as well as gender stereotypes, forcing them to work even harder for equal footing. Asian women, often assumed to be passive and deferential, may also face "double jeopardy."

[We need] to prove ourselves as women in computing, but in Asian culture, women are usually perceived to be quiet and not very outgoing, so it’s contradictory with that behavior that you need to prove yourself in order to get recognition and have people think that you are knowledgeable.

We had a very explicit conversation with the associate dean recently about a woman of color on the faculty. And he said, quite clearly, you know affirmative action means that we give people an opportunity; once they get to the school we have to evaluate them at tenure time just like everyone else. But then you've saddled her with these enormous obligations as the only person of color on a faculty of a hundred. Her obligations to the students and to sit on these committees was just overwhelming and it was very difficult. What I've noticed is that sometimes the deans and the chairs kind of want to have it both ways.

Provide Training for All Departmental Chairs on Gender Bias >>

Eliminate Bias by Clearly Communicating Policies to Internal and External Reviewers >>

Double-Binds and Deference-Challenged Women: When the job requires a "go-getter" but assertive women are seen as "difficult."

Brilliant, assertive women may hear that colleagues think of them as "difficult" or "noncollegial."

DO YOU RECOGNIZE THESE SCENARIOS?

Assertive or abrasive?

Time and again, women report being called abrasive or unprofessional for delivering critical remarks without apology, while their male counterparts are perceived as admirably direct for the same behavior. Heaven help two women who disagree with each other; they are usually perceived as having a "catfight" or an argument with loaded emotional baggage.[10]

[A]t some point he was associated with the dean’s office, and he started writing emails out of the dean’s office with curse words in them. And when I called somebody on that, they just said, "Well, that’s just him." [If it were a woman,] she’d have been reprimanded in a heartbeat.

Men self promote/women brag.

Women who use hedges and disclaimers to minimize their accomplishments ("Do you think?" "I'm no expert, but...") are often seen as more palatable than those who speak directly and with confidence about their ideas and experiences.[11]

How come it was okay when he did it?

Women often face what's known as "leniency bias": a double-standard of accountability when blazing a new trail or bending a rule. Says one female professor, "You follow the same path in doing a particular task as the men that you've seen do it, and then you get slapped on the wrist . . . I just saw five men do it and they've been doing it the past six months and nothing was said!"[12]

Better be "one of the boys."

Women have often tried to succeed by becoming "one of the boys." It's a delicate balance, though, between adopting a traditionally masculine interpersonal style and being "too assertive."[13]

For me personally, this whole “one of the boys” thing, I’ve definitely gotten farther doing that. And the moment that you stop doing that, you’re isolated for awhile.

Establish Mentoring Programs to Support Junior Faculty >>

Catch-22

Search committees seek the best candidates, and exclude those who are not assertive, intense and single-minded. This eliminates many women who are perceived as not fitting these criteria. At the same time, women who do fit this model often are eliminated on the grounds that they lack collegiality or are abrasive. This is the Catch-22: because assertive, single-minded women grate against cultural stereotypes of nurturing, supportive women, they must navigate the tricky minefields between "not competent enough" and "what a witch!"[14]

Double jeopardy

Stereotypes of "deference-challenged" women vary by race, and include the "angry black woman" and the Asian-American "dragon lady."[15] Latina women often struggle to express themselves powerfully, confronted with "fiery, hot-blooded" stereotypes when they do.[16]

The Maternal Wall: Motherhood is linked to lack of competence and commitment.

It's a boy! Motherhood is one of the key triggers for gender stereotyping. Shouldn't she be home with the baby? And if she is, shouldn't she be more committed to her career?

Seminars used to be later in the afternoon, from 5 to 6 or 8 to later. And it wasn’t until men said, “I have to pick up the kids at 5 o’clock” that the seminars all moved earlier. I knew women who didn’t want to bring that up because they didn’t want to be criticized, so it wasn’t until some of the men who were sharing childcare said it that actually happened, in two different departments I know of.

Offer a Part-Time Tenure Track >>

Train All Chairs in Managing with Flexibility >>

I worry a little about what are the women students coming up are thinking about all this because I’ve had really good students say to me, when I’m talking about what kind of jobs they’re going to apply for when they’re getting ready to finish, “You know, I’m not sure I want to do this, because I want to have a real life.” So what’s the picture they’re seeing? They’re very smart, they’re perfectly capable of doing the work, and they recognize the good things about it, but they worry about being able to manage.

Offer a Part-Time Tenure Track >>

Train All Chairs in Managing with Flexibility >>

DO YOU RECOGNIZE THESE SCENARIOS?

Pregnancy=nurturing and gentle not authoritative and confident

When a woman announces her pregnancy, the assumption that she should be nurturing and gentle increases.  Therefore, a pregnant woman who is assertive, confident and authoritative triggers hostility from superiors as well as subordinates.[21]

I was on my second child. I worked right up until twenty minutes before I went and had my c-section, and I worked the second I came home and I was back at work when my son was two weeks old. I brought him into a work function and my boss, who I thought was very supportive of women, came up to me and said, “You’re not going to have another one are you?” I mean, my infant was less than a month old, I was back at work, and I was keeping up with all of my other commitments. I don’t think he realized what he was saying.

Train All Chairs in Managing with Flexibility >>

Treat Pregnancy Leave the Same as Other Kinds of Disability Leave >>

The good mother

A "good mother" is always available when her children need her... day or night.[22] A "good worker" is always available when her employer needs her... day or night.[23] This obvious conflict leads to clashes when women break either expectation: when they go on maternity leave (bad worker!), and when they put in long hours on the job (bad mother!). One woman writes, "At my campus, most women are afraid to admit that they even have children."[24]

I have been very concerned if I have to run and get my son from childcare that it is going to be frowned upon, and try to the best of my ability to make that all look like it doesn’t exist.

Train All Chairs in Managing with Flexibility >>

"Of course we support you... but we need you here."

Family leave and maternity leave policies may be on the books, but attitudes have not necessarily caught up with them. In one case, a female professor used a "stop the clock" policy after the birth of her children, in accordance with university policy. Upon her return, she was denied tenure, even though she had the unanimous recommendation from her tenure committee and an endorsement from the dean. What happened? The provost allegedly told another professor that the mother's decision to "stop the clock" was "a red flag," and the department chair wrote in a memo that the woman "knew as the mother of two infants [that] she had responsibilities that were incompatible with those of a full-time academician." The result? A reported tentative settlement for the female professor of nearly half a million dollars.[25]

I have male colleagues who, when they’ve had a couple beers, will tell me directly that they won’t hire women technicians because of maternity leave. And I have to say, unfortunately, this university does not help in terms of the policies. I mean, I’m having to pay somebody’s maternity leave off of my grant now and hire somebody else to do the work.

Provide Cafeteria-Style Benefits >>

Treat Pregnancy Leave the Same as Other Kinds of Disability Leave >>

I took [a delay in tenure review for the birth of my child after one of my female colleagues suggested it]. And then I heard one of my female committee members say that we should not suggest to faculty members to go ahead and take delayed tenure, but that if faculty members ask for it that it would be okay.

Train All Chairs in Managing with Flexibility >>

Have Opt-Out vs. Opt-In Policies >>

Let’s do her a favor

And the flip side: "John is better suited for this fellowship. She just had a baby; she needs some family time right now."

Mothers often suffer from the seemingly benevolent gestures of management that end up "killing them with kindness." Opportunities are given to others so that women can "stay home with the little ones," rather than take an important fellowship or be given a leadership position on a high-profile research team.[26]

This has happened to me, this benevolent prescriptive bias. A number of years ago I had an opportunity to do this training program that’s two years long. And my department head at the time said, I don’t think you should do this before you have tenure. But looking back on it now, I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that I had a really small child and he thought that time commitment was going to be too much. I was really mad because at least I thought it should have been up to me, but he made the decision.

Train All Chairs in Managing with Flexibility >>

"Lesbians don't have children... do they?"

Lesbians are sometimes hired with the misguided assumption that they will not have children. If they do become mothers, lesbian professors and administrators may face even more negative evaluations by supervisors who feel "misled," even if it was by their own biased assumptions.[27]

Double jeopardy

Stereotypes of mothers differ by race. One woman reported that "the stereotype that women of certain groups have 'too many babies' affects perceptions of which women take time for family leave."[28]

The frigid climate for fathers

Mr. Mom: Fathers who take on a strong parenting role are seen as showing signs of weakness.

DO YOU RECOGNIZE THIS SCENARIO?

The wimp effect.

The stereotype of a good father is that of a breadwinner — not a caregiver.[29] When fathers take paternity leave, it is seen by some as less than manly. The result? One study found that 40% of faculty men wanted to, but did not take, parental leave.[30]

Men report facing "the wimp effect" from all sides in academia:

• One male professor who requested parental leave was met with "sneering denial by my chair."[31]
  
  
• An untenured professor said that he did not dare even ask about parental leave, because he feared that merely inquiring about it -- let alone taking it -- would jeopardize his career.[32]
  
  
• One father requested parental leave and was told, "Your wife should take it."[33]
  
  Yeah, and actually, [my colleague], his wife gave birth to a baby like the first year or second year, he’s tenure track, he actually took a one semester off, like a paternity leave? His wife actually kind of stays home, she doesn’t have a really full time job, but still he took the semester off to help her.
  
  Design Parental Leave Policies Based on Caretaking Status, Not Gender >> 
  
  Foster Dual Careers with Central Financing >> 

Good girls/bad girls

In some workplaces, women are expected to fit into a limited number of traditionally feminine roles -- and penalized if they don't.

DO YOU RECOGNIZE THESE SCENARIOS?

Mother, princess, pet

In some workplaces , in order to succeed, women need to play into stereotypes that their male colleagues find easier to accept. Traditionally feminine roles that are common in the workplace include the "mother," who takes care of everyone around her, the "princess," who aligns with a powerful man without challenging his dominance, and the "pet," who acts as an unthreatening cheerleader for the men.[34] Men, of course, are not required to fit into tightly cabined roles in order to be accepted. This pattern is called "ambivalent sexism": women who play traditionally feminine roles receive benevolent approval, while deference-challenged women encounter hostile disapproval.

Gender wars

Ambivalent sexism often leads to fights among women, as "deference-challenged" women who are unwilling to play these roles often clash with those who feel more comfortable meeting the expectations of the men.[35]

When I started, I was considered faculty and I was the only female [faculty member], and I was expected to help with the filing and sorting mail and some of that stuff. And I just kind of took it because I was very low-level faculty. A new faculty woman came in and she insisted that the staff all refer to her as doctor and she wasn’t going to do any of the filing, and everybody was like, who the hell is she? Who does she think she is? She wasn’t just one of the girls in the secretarial pool, she expected to be treated the same as the males.

The only conflict I’ve seen has to be my own. We have a woman collaborator who was a Ph.D. student of the department head, and she seems to be getting a lot of perks because she’s a woman. And I’ve come to look within myself because even though she’s a perfectly good person, I’m disliking her because she’s being given a lot more privileges than anybody else in the department.

Provide Training for All Departmental Chairs on Gender Bias >>

The mommy wars

Women in academia become mothers at sharply lower rates than women in the general population. [36] Some are regretful; others are "childfree." Gender wars can arise between mothers and each group. Regretful, "childless" women sometimes feel: "Mothers can't expect to have it all. Look what I had to give up to succeed." Joyfully "childfree" women may feel that mothers are reinforcing stereotypes that women can't succeed without "special treatment." Mothers may feel that "women are less supportive than the men." These dynamics are not just "catfights": they stem from a particular pattern of gender bias.[37]

We have a case in our college where one of the faculty women had four children, and she has a lot of service responsibility. Every time she was out on maternity leave, someone had to pick up her service. Well, the first time you do it, everybody pitches in and they’re happy. The second time it’s okay, but the third and the fourth time the she started to engender some resentment. Not so much from the guys, but the women who don’t have children in the department would say, how many times do we have to pick them up?

Treat Pregnancy Leave the Same as Other Kinds of Disability Leave >>

I know in our clinical situations, there can sometimes be an assumption that if you don’t have children at home, you don’t mind working later and later because to go home to your children is one thing, but to go home to your dog or cat or yourself is another. I know in the past it’s caused a lot of bad feeling on the part of the single people or people without [children].

I have no children. But I have to say that I’m fed up. Because you need to be considerate when people have family responsibilities; they have to take care of people. But I’m single, so [the assumption is that I don’t have any other responsibilities].

Provide Cafeteria-Style Benefits >>

Best Practice Policies to Retain Women >

Best Practices to Combat Hidden Gender Bias in Academia

Share Your Experiences >

It's time to bring hidden gender bias in academia into the light. Start the conversation right here! Join our blog and share your experiences with others. All identifying contact information will be kept confidential.

Read All About It  >

Bibliography on Hidden Gender Bias in Academia here.

Endnotes

NOTE:  All quotations are from focus groups conducted by the Center for WorkLife in 2007 and 2008.