USU female faculty members honored
The Center for Women and Gender held its annual fall social for new female faculty members on Friday evening
More than 35 women, representing all eight colleges at USU, gathered for the event, which was held at the Caine home.
Ann Austin, Director for the Center for Women and Gender, said the annual event originally began when there were very few women faculty members at the university and continues because the number of women is still on the low side.
“As a land-grant university, we really are not up with the other land-grant universities in terms of the number of women we have,” she said.
The fall social gives female faculty members a chance to meet each other to form a support group.
“The whole idea of the event is to welcome the new women and to help them know where the other women are,” Austin said.
Austin said Utah State’s female faculty members comprise about 32 percent of the tenured faculty, while other western land-grant universities have faculties comprised of about 38 percent women on average.
Mimi Recker, head of the College of Education’s instructional technology and learning sciences department, said women enter academic careers at approximately equal rates to men, but the numbers drop sharply by the time the level of full professor is reached.
“The numbers are dismally low,” she said. “Not just at Utah State but at all institutions.”
There are many factors that may contribute to the low numbers of women faculty.
Recker said one of the biggest reasons why women often don’t pursue administrative positions is based on the decision to have children.
“I still think that women take on a bigger share of childcare and that affects your career.” she said.
Anne Diekema, an assistant professor of instructional technology and learning sciences, said how women deal with pressure often keeps them out of tenured and administrative rolls.
“Women are more realistic and worried about their abilities,” she said.
Since the tenure process is very stressful, many women decide it’s not worth it.
“You are being evaluated all the time and you worry if you are producing enough,” Diekema said. “I find that my female friends who are faculty members tend to be more worried about that and suffer more under that stress than my male friends who are going through exactly the same process.”
Aside from having a few roadblocks, women also have a few advantages when it comes to choosing a career.
Sarah Urquhart, an assistant professor of interior design, said women often have more freedom in choosing what they want to do than men.
“Men have to focus on providing,” she said. “So they might choose something more economical instead of something like interior design that may not pay as well.”
The Center for Women and Gender studies looks into the reasons why women don’t pursue positions at the university and strives to help narrow the gender gap at Utah State.
Austin said the center has travel grants and research grants, especially for women in all aspects of study, as well as for men who research topics which directly concern women.
“We have been really privileged to fund an all-male lab group working on breast cancer,” she said.
Overall, the center tries to help women meet and speak with each other.
“It is a support system,” Austin said.
Recker said USU does a good job promoting and supporting women in prestigious positions.
“They try to provide childcare for students and faculty who have children and provide options and awareness,” she said.
Diekema said the women at Utah State support each other.
“They talk about it and there are workshops on how to prepare your materials and stuff,” she said. “But ultimately it’s going on mostly in your head.”
The center not only supports faculty members but students as well.
Recker said it is important to make sure that all students – both men and women – know about career options and have help getting their degree.
“In the end, a college degree leads to better opportunities in the job market,” she said.
– ashlyn.tucker@aggiemail.usu.edu