Gendered hiring and attrition on the path to parity for academic faculty
- Department of Computer Science, University of Colorado, United States
- BioFrontiers Institute, University of Colorado, United States
- Santa Fe Institute, United States
Figures
Figure 1
Change in women’s overall faculty representation for 111 academic fields between 2011 and 2020, decomposed into change due to hiring (horizontal axis) and change due to attrition (vertical axis, see Appendix 1 section, Decomposition of change in gender diversity), showing that hiring increased women’s representation for a large majority (87.4%) of fields, while it decreased women’s representation for five fields.
Point size represents the relative size of each field by number of faculty in 2020, and points are colored by Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) (black) or non-STEM (gray).
Figure 2
Gendered faculty attrition has caused a differential loss of women faculty in both Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) and non-STEM fields.
(A) Gendered attrition in psychology has caused a loss of () of women’s representation between 2011 and 2020, relative to a counterfactual model with gender-neutral attrition (see Methods …
Figure 3
Projecting women’s representation under five policy scenarios.
(A) Observed (dotted line, 2011–2020) and projected (solid lines, 2021–2060) faculty gender diversity for Natural Sciences over time and (B) projections for 11 academic domains over 40 years under …
Appendix 1—figure 1
The change in gender diversity between 2011 and 2020 can be approximately decomposed into parts due to hiring and attrition for each academic field, but there is a leftover residual term.
In practice, we find that the residual term tends to be very small, such that the decomposition is nearly ideal. The dotted line represents an ideal decomposition, where the change in women’s …
Appendix 1—figure 2
Model validation: Differences between observed gender diversity outcomes and model-based outcomes.
(A) The mean outcomes of model-based simulations in psychology differ from the observed outcomes by , and (B) in Ecology by , but these differences are not statistically significant. (C) Gender …
Appendix 1—figure 3
Model validation: Projected 2060 faculty career age distributions for Natural Sciences from Figure 3 are similar to the observed career age distribution for Natural Sciences in 2020, for each projection scenario.
Line widths for the simulated scenarios span the middle 95% of simulations. OA = observed attrition, GNA = gender-neutral attrition, IR = increasing representation of women among hires (+0.5 pp each …
Appendix 1—figure 4
Model selection.
(A) Four logistic regression models fit to observed faculty attrition data. Each model includes career age up to a different power, e.g., the model labeled ‘Career age order 3’ includes career age …
Appendix 1—figure 5
Model selection.
(A) Four logistic regression models fit to observed faculty hiring data, where the outcome variable is the gender of the faculty hire (1=woman, 0=man). Each model includes career age up to a …
Appendix 1—figure 6
Sensitivity analysis: Replicating the counterfactual analysis from Results section, Quantifying the impact of gendered attrition using career age up to its third power in the associated logistic regressions model, instead of the fifth power (see Appendix 1 section, Model validation and sensitivity analysis, for details).
Findings under this parameterization are qualitatively very similar to those presented in Figure 2, indicating that the results are robust to modest changes to model parameterization.
Appendix 1—figure 7
Fraction of women among tenure-track faculty hires over time at U.S. PhD-granting institutions.
Women’s share of new hires is observed to increase at around annually (t-test, ), measured by an ordinary least squares regression fit (shown in purple).
Appendix 1—figure 8
Career age distribution of women (red) and men (blue) tenured and tenure-track faculty across all academic fields.
Career age is measured as the number of years since earning a PhD. There are substantially more men faculty with high career ages than women faculty.
Tables
Appendix 1—table 1
Trends in women’s representation among new hires from 2012 to 2020 for 11 academic domains, along with academia overall.
We use linear regression to measure the expected change in women’s concentration among new hires each year, and find that women’s representation has been increasing in 6 of the 11 domains over time, …
| Academic domain | Estimated annual change (pp) | p |
|---|---|---|
| Mathematics and Computing | 0.25 | 0.095 |
| Social Sciences | 1.18† | 0.006 |
| Natural Sciences | 1.30‡ | 0.000 |
| Engineering | 0.95‡ | 0.000 |
| Health | 0.58* | 0.020 |
| Humanities | 1.18† | 0.002 |
| Public Administration and Policy | 0.22 | 0.717 |
| Business | 0.38 | 0.089 |
| Medicine | 0.98† | 0.009 |
| Journalism, Media and Communication | 0.49 | 0.173 |
| Education | 0.34 | 0.057 |
| Academia Overall | 0.91‡ | 0.000 |
-
*
p<0.05.
-
†
p<0.01.
-
‡
p<0.001.
Appendix 1—table 2
Changes in women’s representation through Hiring, Attrition, and Gendered Attrition in Academic Fields (2011–2020).
Observed changes in women’s representation resulting from hiring and attrition, expressed in percentage points (pp), based on data from Figure 1, and the estimated average change in women’s …
| Field | Observed | Observed | Est. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Health | |||
| Environmental Health Sciences | +6.65 | +3.46 | +2.40 (–1.03, +5.60) |
| Nursing | –4.34 | +0.48 | +0.55 (–0.59, +1.65) |
| Public Health | +4.48 | +0.71 | –0.11 (–1.89, +1.60) |
| Human Development and Family Sciences | +3.19 | –0.48 | –2.81 (–5.44, –0.25) |
| Speech and Hearing Sciences | +3.30 | +2.84 | +2.67 (–0.81, +6.31) |
| Exercise Science, Kinesiology, Rehab, Health | +6.26 | –1.96 | –2.05 (–3.63, –0.27) |
| Nutrition Sciences | +0.31 | +0.12 | –1.18 (–3.62, +1.37) |
| Communication Disorders and Sciences | +6.11 | +1.32 | +1.26 (–1.77, +4.99) |
| Health, Physical Education, Recreation | +2.40 | –0.35 | –0.78 (–4.34, +2.52) |
| Social Work | +4.73 | –0.04 | –1.23 (3.21, +0.60) |
| Education | |||
| Education | +1.55 | +1.07 | –0.28 (–2.21, +1.62) |
| Special Education | +3.64 | –2.24 | –3.41 (–3.41, –0.28) |
| Education Administration | +0.91 | +2.34 | –0.74 (–2.84, +1.51) |
| Counselor Education | +5.08 | +0.86 | –0.49 (–3.36, +2.49) |
| Curriculum and Instruction | +0.97 | +1.26 | –1.61 (–3.70, +0.22) |
| Journalism, Media and Communication | |||
| Communication | +3.43 | +0.20 | –1.16 (–3.01, +0.80) |
| Mass Communications and Media Studies | +4.30 | +1.22 | +0.63 (–1.61, +2.73) |
| Humanities | |||
| Theological Studies | +0.51 | +0.71 | –0.91 (–3.07, +1.02) |
| Asian Languages | –0.54 | +2.43 | +1.78 (–1.91, +5.32) |
| Slavic Languages and Literatures | +3.34 | +3.60 | +0.93 (–3.00, +5.18) |
| Classics and Classical Languages | +3.33 | +2.25 | +0.20 (–2.14, +2.69) |
| French Language and Literature | +0.50 | +1.23 | –0.38 (–3.69, +3.30) |
| Germanic Languages and Literatures | +3.72 | _3.23 | +2.08 (–1.44, +5.76) |
| Theatre Literature, History and Criticism | +0.79 | +2.87 | +0.40 (–4.04, +4.58) |
| Art History and Criticism | +2.18 | +2.67 | +0.44 (–1.85, +2.86) |
| Asian Studies | –1.17 | +1.04 | +0.72 (–2.84, +3.90) |
| History | +2.84 | +2.11 | –0.64 (–1.69, +0.44) |
| Urban and Regional Planning | +5.71 | +1.74 | –1.01 (–4.53, +2.34) |
| Linguistics | –0.15 | +2.19 | +0.44 (–2.12, +3.29) |
| English Language and Literature | +2.17 | +0.63 | –1.80 (–2.80, –0.80) |
| Near and Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures | +5.80 | –0.22 | –0.87 (–4.87, +3.41) |
| Music | +3.72 | –0.99 | –1.10 (–2.54, +2.54) |
| Philosophy | +5.03 | +0.04 | –1.84 (–3.37, –0.24) |
| Religious Studies | +2.68 | –0.22 | –1.97 (–4.28, +0.08) |
| Comparative Literature | +1.78 | +1.17 | –0.58 (–4.04, +2.40) |
| Spanish Language and Literature | +2.39 | +1.94 | –0.55 (–3.09, +1.98) |
| Architecture | +4.53 | +2.64 | +0.77 (–2.31, +3.72) |
| Public Administration and Policy | |||
| Public Policy | +5.16 | –0.88 | –1.88 (–3.85, +0.23) |
| Public Administration | +6.49 | +0.82 | –1.11 (–3.71, +1.62) |
| Social Sciences | |||
| Sociology | +3.99 | +1.51 | –1.43 (–2.92, +0.03) |
| Gender Studies | –2.71 | +1.40 | +2.28 (–0.56, +5.25) |
| Anthropology | +3.68 | +2.30 | –0.42 (–1.94, +1.31) |
| Political Science | +4.35 | +1.00 | –0.15 (–1.41, +0.98) |
| International Affairs | +6.99 | –1.58 | –2.74 (–5.31, –0.33) |
| Geography | +6.65 | +0.80 | –0.51 (–2.26, +1.82) |
| Psychology | +5.81 | –0.04 | –1.83 (–2.82, –0.74) |
| Agricultural Economics | +6.46 | +0.43 | –0.87 (–4.10, +1.76) |
| Educational Psychology | +3.51 | –0.73 | –0.84 (–3.75, +2.13) |
| Economics | +2.93 | +0.45 | –0.61 (–1.66, +0.50) |
| Criminal Justice and Criminology | +6.26 | +1.12 | –0.63 (–3.47, +2.28) |
| Business | |||
| Accounting | +3.02 | +0.47 | –1.35 (–3.37, +0.61) |
| Marketing | +4.43 | +0.06 | –1.09 (–3.11, +0.99) |
| Management Information Systems | +3.61 | –2.50 | –2.44 (–4.61, –0.10) |
| Finance | +3.13 | –0.01 | –0.64 (–2.26, +0.88) |
| Business Administration | +4.21 | –0.34 | –0.23 (–1.98, +1.67) |
| Management | +2.76 | –0.20 | –1.53 (–2.94, +0.17) |
| Medicine | |||
| Genetics | +4.31 | +1.04 | +0.25 (–2.77, +3.00) |
| Pharmaceutical Sciences | +6.88 | –0.34 | –1.42 (–3.78, +0.96) |
| Epidemiology | +3.95 | +0.29 | –0.67 (–3.04, +1.59) |
| Pharmacology | +2.91 | +0.61 | –0.38 (–2.19, +1.36) |
| Pharmacy | +10.25 | –1.54 | –1.36 (–4.17, +1.52) |
| Physiology | +5.21 | +0.26 | –1.19 (–3.05, +0.72) |
| Veterinary Medical Sciences | +10.34 | –1.92 | –2.52 (–4.31, –0.74) |
| Immunology | +3.80 | +2.23 | +0.41 (–1.55, +2.35) |
| Natural Sciences | |||
| Entomology | +6.49 | +0.85 | –1.42 (–4.55, +1.21) |
| Soil Science | +4.64 | +2.10 | +0.52 (–2.46, +3.38) |
| Anatomy | +6.05 | –0.82 | –1.61 (–4.11, +0.84) |
| Natural Resources | +4.70 | +1.64 | +0.09 (–2.23, +2.49) |
| Plant Sciences | +4.74 | +2.19 | +1.01 (–1.61, +3.68) |
| Plant Pathology | +4.88 | +1.51 | –1.70 (–4.92, +1.69) |
| Biophysics | +4.00 | –0.41 | –0.75 (–3.31, +1.71) |
| Food Science | +4.16 | +0.51 | –1.08 (–4.07, +2.03) |
| Pathology | +5.25 | –2.58 | –1.50 (–3.14, +0.04) |
| Horticulture | +2.60 | –0.12 | –1.66 (–5.07, +1.69) |
| Biostatistics | +3.58 | –0.69 | –0.68 (–3.49, +2.02) |
| Agronomy | +4.82 | +1.18 | –0.93 (–3.96, +1.68) |
| Animal Sciences | +7.46 | +1.74 | –0.51 (–2.68, +1.63) |
| Forestry and Forest Resources | +6.54 | +0.37 | –1.82 (–4.83, +0.71) |
| Geology | +5.93 | +1.54 | –0.38 (–1.85, +1.03) |
| Biological Sciences | +5.22 | +1.69 | –0.04 (–1.07, +0.92) |
| Physics | +2.32 | +1.00 | –0.25 (–1.00, +0.50) |
| Chemistry | +3.96 | +0.40 | –0.87 (–1.77, +0.02) |
| Biochemistry | +3.91 | +0.25 | –0.89 (–2.22, +0.40) |
| Chemical Engineering | +4.08 | +0.21 | –0.87 (–2.38, +0.63) |
| Environmental Sciences | +5.88 | +1.56 | –0.64 (–2.62, +1.16) |
| Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology | +4.59 | +2.42 | +1.30 (–1.00, +3.30) |
| Biomedical Engineering | +4.29 | +2.08 | +0.44 (–1.38, +2.40) |
| Microbiology | +5.28 | +0.32 | –0.99 (–2.51, +0.59) |
| Cell Biology | +4.82 | +0.33 | –0.48 (2.06, +1.11) |
| Marine Sciences | +5.20 | +1.95 | –0.08 (–2.85, +2.44) |
| Astronomy | +2.89 | +1.52 | +0.08 (–1.22, +1.35) |
| Evolutionary Biology | +6.79 | +1.88 | +0.54 (–2.10, +3.21) |
| Ecology | +6.23 | +3.54 | +1.42 (–0.88, +3.92) |
| Neuroscience | +4.19 | –0.07 | –0.75 (–2.63, +1.02) |
| Molecular Biology | +3.40 | +0.83 | –0.16 (–1.83, +1.53) |
| Mathematics and Computing | |||
| Statistics | +2.89 | +1.64 | +0.24 (–1.43, +1.72) |
| Mathematics | +2.86 | +0,65 | –0.44 (–1.22, +0.41) |
| Computer Engineering | +2.66 | +0.23 | –0.18 (–1.08, +0.79) |
| Computer Science | +2.26 | –0.09 | –0.55 (–1.51, +0.32) |
| Information Technology | +0.88 | –1.17 | –0.29 (–2.68, +2.01) |
| Information Science | +0.81 | –1.00 | –1.70 (–4.20, +1.05) |
| Engineering | |||
| Mechanical Engineering | +3.39 | +0.60 | –0.18 (–1.09, +0.75) |
| Systems Engineering | +3.29 | +0.48 | –1.29 (–3.85, +1.15) |
| Aerospace Engineering | +2.53 | +1.18 | +0.33 (–1.27, +1.93) |
| Electrical Engineering | +2.18 | +0.46 | –0.22 (–1.11, +0.66) |
| Agricultural Engineering | +4.74 | +1.22 | –0.16 (–1.96, +1.44) |
| Operations Research | +2.53 | –0.39 | –0.99 (–3.44, +1.32) |
| Environmental Engineering | +4.94 | +0.91 | –0.91 (–2.30, +0.52) |
| Civil Engineering | +4.30 | +1.54 | –0.25 (–1.51, +1.07) |
| Materials Engineering | +4.68 | +0.46 | –0.85 (–2.76, +0.80) |
| Industrial Engineering | +1.86 | +1.66 | +0.14 (285, –2.25, +2.54) |
Appendix 1—table 3
Number of faculty by field and gender, 2020.
Estimated counts of women and men faculty based on 2020 faculty rosters and name-based gender inference (Van Buskirk et al., 2023).
| Field | Women | Men | Pct. women |
|---|---|---|---|
| Health | |||
| Environmental Health Sciences | 285 | 430 | 39.9 |
| Nursing | 3531 | 515 | 87.3 |
| Public Health | 1813 | 1555 | 53.3 |
| Human Development and Family Sciences | 765 | 486 | 61.2 |
| Speech and Hearing Sciences | 352 | 184 | 65.7 |
| Exercise Science, Kinesiology, Rehab, Health | 1612 | 1555 | 50.9 |
| Nutrition Sciences | 722 | 604 | 54.4 |
| Communication Disorders and Sciences | 450 | 215 | 67.7 |
| Health, Physical Education, Recreation | 356 | 427 | 45.5 |
| Social Work | 1308 | 696 | 65.3 |
| Education | |||
| Education | 1301 | 857 | 60.3 |
| Special Education | 452 | 277 | 62.0 |
| Education Administration | 986 | 840 | 54.0 |
| Counselor Education | 566 | 405 | 58.3 |
| Curriculum and Instruction | 1204 | 654 | 64.3 |
| Journalism, Media and Communication | |||
| Communication | 1054 | 1208 | 46.6 |
| Mass Communications and Media Studies | 947 | 1093 | 46.4 |
| Humanities | |||
| Theological Studies | 324 | 958 | 25.3 |
| Asian Languages | 189 | 257 | 42.4 |
| Slavic Languages and Literatures | 198 | 186 | 51.6 |
| Classics and Classical Languages | 513 | 596 | 46.3 |
| French Language and Literature | 291 | 253 | 53.5 |
| Germanic Languages and Literatures | 244 | 264 | 48.0 |
| Theatre Literature, History and Criticism | 574 | 615 | 48.3 |
| Art History and Criticism | 1006 | 912 | 52.5 |
| Asian Studies | 237 | 344 | 40.8 |
| History | 2071 | 3008 | 40.8 |
| Urban and Regional Planning | 335 | 506 | 39.8 |
| Linguistics | 404 | 467 | 46.4 |
| English Language and Literature | 2968 | 2018 | 50.4 |
| Near and Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures | 160 | 268 | 37.4 |
| Music | 1239 | 2747 | 31.1 |
| Philosophy | 788 | 1773 | 30.8 |
| Religious Studies | 446 | 900 | 33.1 |
| Comparative Literature | 354 | 364 | 49.3 |
| Spanish Language and Literature | 438 | 409 | 51.7 |
| Architecture | 606 | 1205 | 33.5 |
| Public Administration and Policy | |||
| Public Policy | 687 | 1146 | 37.5 |
| Public Administration | 446 | 645 | 40.9 |
| Social Sciences | |||
| Sociology | 1501 | 1483 | 50.3 |
| Gender Studies | 474 | 82 | 85.3 |
| Anthropology | 1305 | 1291 | 50.3 |
| Political Science | 1345 | 2702 | 33.2 |
| International Affairs | 426 | 851 | 33.4 |
| Geography | 482 | 933 | 34.1 |
| Psychology | 2826 | 3215 | 46.8 |
| Agricultural Economics | 171 | 532 | 24.3 |
| Educational Psychology | 555 | 463 | 54.5 |
| Economics | 804 | 3039 | 20.9 |
| Criminal Justice and Criminology | 466 | 588 | 44.2 |
| Business | |||
| Accounting | 536 | 1186 | 31.1 |
| Marketing | 516 | 1069 | 32.6 |
| Management Information Systems | 231 | 867 | 21.0 |
| Finance | 377 | 1503 | 20.1 |
| Business Administration | 546 | 1473 | 27.0 |
| Management | 880 | 2136 | 29.2 |
| Medicine | |||
| Genetics | 324 | 612 | 34.6 |
| Pharmaceutical Sciences | 444 | 912 | 32.7 |
| Epidemiology | 778 | 747 | 51.0 |
| Pharmacology | 512 | 1268 | 28.8 |
| Pharmacy | 567 | 639 | 47.0 |
| Physiology | 620 | 1446 | 30.0 |
| Veterinary Medical Sciences | 956 | 1281 | 42.7 |
| Immunology | 677 | 1303 | 34.2 |
| Natural Sciences | |||
| Entomology | 191 | 494 | 27.9 |
| Soil Science | 163 | 506 | 24.4 |
| Anatomy | 387 | 763 | 33.7 |
| Natural Resources | 340 | 877 | 27.9 |
| Plant Sciences | 250 | 656 | 27.6 |
| Plant Pathology | 166 | 446 | 27.1 |
| Biophysics | 223 | 689 | 24.5 |
| Food Science | 353 | 474 | 42.7 |
| Pathology | 1199 | 1868 | 39.1 |
| Horticulture | 117 | 394 | 22.9 |
| Biostatistics | 457 | 676 | 40.3 |
| Agronomy | 149 | 526 | 22.1 |
| Animal Sciences | 337 | 749 | 31.0 |
| Forestry and Forest Resources | 229 | 655 | 25.9 |
| Geology | 770 | 2098 | 26.8 |
| Biological Sciences | 1895 | 3656 | 34.1 |
| Physics | 800 | 4364 | 15.5 |
| Chemistry | 1024 | 3691 | 21.8 |
| Biochemistry | 1001 | 2884 | 25.8 |
| Chemical Engineering | 405 | 1692 | 19.3 |
| Environmental Sciences | 624 | 1416 | 30.6 |
| Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology | 267 | 757 | 26.1 |
| Biomedical Engineering | 426 | 1284 | 24.9 |
| Microbiology | 884 | 1815 | 32.8 |
| Cell Biology | 844 | 1699 | 33.2 |
| Marine Sciences | 279 | 722 | 27.9 |
| Astronomy | 416 | 1937 | 17.7 |
| Evolutionary Biology | 293 | 521 | 36.0 |
| Ecology | 370 | 662 | 35.9 |
| Neuroscience | 721 | 1443 | 33.3 |
| Molecular Biology | 732 | 1669 | 30.5 |
| Mathematics and Computing | |||
| Statistics | 474 | 1598 | 22.9 |
| Mathematics | 1072 | 4688 | 18.6 |
| Computer Engineering | 584 | 3581 | 14.0 |
| Computer Science | 885 | 4291 | 17.1 |
| Information Technology | 211 | 759 | 21.8 |
| Information Science | 404 | 723 | 35.8 |
| Engineering | |||
| Mechanical Engineering | 562 | 3428 | 14.1 |
| Systems Engineering | 152 | 654 | 18.9 |
| Aerospace Engineering | 209 | 1364 | 13.3 |
| Electrical Engineering | 613 | 3914 | 13.5 |
| Agricultural Engineering | 378 | 1386 | 21.4 |
| Operations Research | 149 | 632 | 19.1 |
| Environmental Engineering | 517 | 1854 | 21.8 |
| Civil Engineering | 585 | 2217 | 20.9 |
| Materials Engineering | 340 | 1439 | 19.1 |
| Industrial Engineering | 212 | 838 | 20.2 |
