Gender and Promotion in the Academic Profession
| Date | 01 August 2001 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9485.00199 |
| Author | Melanie E. Ward |
| Published date | 01 August 2001 |
{Journals}sjpe/48_3/c160/makeup/c160.3d
GENDER AND PROMOTION IN THE
ACADEMIC PROFESSION
Melanie E. Ward*
ABSTRACT
This paper examines the possibility that the gender rank distribution observed in
the academic labour market is predominantly explained by two factors. First, the
differing average characteristics of male and female academics, and second,
barriers to female promotion. Despite detailed controls for personal attributes,
including career breaks and publication history, male academics are more likely to
be found in higher grades. Promotion from researcher to lecturer is a relatively
high hurdle for women. Evidence suggests that initial placement and the process of
moving between universities contributes to the male advantage in rank attainment.
II
NTRODUCTION
Statistics from the Higher Education Statistics Agency suggest that female
academic staff are over represented in the lower rungs of the British academic
profession, making up around 35% of researchers, but only 8% of professors
(HESA 1996). Little is known, however, about the average human capital
characteristics of male and female academics, which may help to explain the
rank distribution observed within the profession. The lack of appropriate data in
the UK is a particular problem for the potential researcher. National statistics,
collected by the Universities Statistical Record and later by the Higher
Educational Statistics Agency (HESA), contain only very limited summary
information. The census of academic salaries collected data on gender, age, date
of recruitment, rank, faculty and salary, but ceased in 1993.
This paper examines the possibility that the gender rank distribution
observed in the academic labour market is predominantly explained by two
factors. First, the differing average characteristics of male and female
academics, and second, barriers to female promotion. We use a unique and
detailed cross-sectional dataset collected from the academic staff of five old
established universities to investigate the determinants of academic rank
attainment and promotion from grade to grade. This dataset includes detailed
information on career history (including career breaks) and individual
productivity; measured through career publication record, grant award and
Scottish Journal of Political Economy,Vol.48,No.3,August2001
#Scottish Economic Society 2001,Publ ishedby Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK and
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283
*IZA, Bonn, Germany
{Journals}sjpe/48_3/c160/makeup/c160.3d
teaching ability. The data therefore allow us to address the effects of career
breaks on rank attai nment and advance ment, information lacking in previo us
studies of academic promotion. The well-defined job and promotion hierarchy
of the profession, to gether with the simil ar labour market atta chment of male
and female academ ics,1makes this profession particularly interesting for
the analysis of gen der differences in p romotion and overco mes problems of
previous studies, which have had to use proxies such as vocational training and
occupational ind exes for job advance ment.
A handful of studies to date have analysed salary determination within British
academia. Results suggest the importance of rank in the explanation of an
observed gender salary gap of around 15%. McNabb and Wass (1997), using the
census of academic salaries from 1975, 1985 and 1992, argue the limited
advancement of women is the main determinant of their lower average salary.
They emphasise the lesser success of female staff in achieving promotion from
lecturer to senior lecturer in comparison with their male counterparts. Ward
(2000) finds that rank alone explains around one third of the gender salary gap.
Recent papers by Blackaby and Frank (2000), Booth and Burton (2000) and
Machin and Oswald (2000) analyse the state of academic economics in the UK.
Blackaby and Frank (2000) focus on ethnicity, but reveal no significant ethnic
minority effect in academic rank. Booth and Burton (2000) present statistical
evidence which is suggestive of the crowding of women in the lower rungs of
academia.
A number of US studies consider gender differences in promotion for
economists (Broder, 1993; Kahn, 1993, 1995; McDowell, Singell and Ziliak,
1999, 2000), biochemistry doctorates (Long, Allison and McGinnis, 1993) and
staff in the humanities (Ginther and Hayes, 1999, 2000). Findings are generally
suggestive of a significant gender difference in the probability of, and time to,
promotion. A growing number of studies of other individual occupations find
significant evidence for the inferior career advancement of female employees (see
for example Cannings 1988, for business managers, Spurr and Sueyoshi, 1994,
for lawyers and Joy, 1998, for school administrators). As job type is more
narrowly defined, gender differences in promotion disappear (Groot and van
den Brink, 1996) and the inter-rank contribution to the gender salary gap
decreases. Much of the male-female salary differential may therefore exist
because men and women hold different characteristics and are assigned to
different jobs (Lazear and Rosen, 1990), or more specifically, women may be less
likely to be found in higher paying jobs.
The plan of the remainder of this paper is as follows: Section II outlines the
main characteristics of the dataset used in our analysis. Section III introduces
a static discrete choice model of rank attainment and simulates the female
rank distribution that would hold if females faced similar assignment to rank
1One might expect female academics to have stronger long term work commitments than
women in other labour markets, ± partly due to their large investments in human capital, and
partly to the fact that flexibility of academic career is more likely to allow a woman to combine
a career with domestic and family responsibilities.
284 MELANIE E. WARD
#Scottish Economic Society 2001
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