Comments on: Quick hit: Princeton has the lowest percentage of female faculty in the Ivy League

By: AC

AC — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 01:03:00 +0000

It’s true that women have made gains in educational access and the workforce. But even these gains are quite revealing, in terms of new inequalities that feminism has instituted:

* Women outnumbering men in college admissions and graduations, based on girls outperforming boys in elementary and secondary schools
* Women having parity or majorities in all academic disciplines other than the STEM subjects, a disparity which is now the focus of measures to adjust it, while areas of female advantage and, in fact, domination, are ignored
* Women virtually always obtaining custody of children in divorces, even in cases where their husbands have been the primary care-giver
* Numerous fields being completely female-dominated (nursing, psychology, social work, primary and secondary education, numerous academic disciplines), with feminism not expressing any interest in adjusting such inequalities

And that leaves aside the substantial inequalities around reproduction that effectively give women totalitarian power over the means of reproduction, sidelining men as having only the decision as to whether to contribute sperm — so far, yet that right may itself be eradicated at some future point, in the interests of women and society, under some predictions.

Because of that, we see the women’s groups thoroughly disinterested in the advantages women have over men outlined above. Where women are ahead, feminism defends the status quo, while where women are behind, feminism demands changes to ensure parity or better for women.

By: mollya

mollya — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 21:03:49 +0000

I don’t know if tenure is the bulk of the problem. This 27% is in line with national trends, and other schools have varied tenure policies, some more progressive than others.

But I don’t know what exactly, in addition to tenure, causes these disparities. It’s not that women aren’t interested in academia. The fact that more women are enrolled in college than men (I think there’s 1.3 women students for every male student) sheds light on this. There are structural things going on here.

Does anyone know of any good studies in this department? I’d love to read some. Cuz shoot, I ain’t got the answers.

By: ameliatd

ameliatd — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 04:27:14 +0000

I think a lot of the problem really is the tenure. I’d like to see a breakdown of how many female professors actually get tenured. Shirley Tilghman, Princeton’s president, wrote an op-ed in the New York Times (this was years before she joined the administration) about how the tenure system should be abolished – I just tried unsuccessfully to find it online, but I’ll keep looking.

By: emilyabrooke

emilyabrooke — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 02:49:36 +0000

My aunt used to be a professor at Princeton, and desperately wanted tenure. But the university made it nearly impossible for her to gain tenure and raise my two younger cousins. She made the move to Georgetown where she is on tenure track after less than 5 years at the university.
Princeton is a prestigous university and it’s extremely sad that it cannot promote female faculty and search for them more actively.