Knowledge Center

Data and sources for Australia, Canada, Europe, India, Japan, and the United States.
 

Australia

In Australia, Women Hold Fewer Senior Faculty Positions Than Men1

In 2016, Australian women held fewer academic positions than men at the senior lecturer level and above, but more than half of all lecturer and below-lecturer positions.2

• Women held 44.7% of Senior Lecturer faculty positions and just 31.7% of Above Senior Lecturer faculty positions.3
• Women held 53.2% of Lecturer faculty positions and 53.3% of Below Lecturer faculty positons.4

Canada

Women's Representation Among Faculty Is on the Rise in Canada5

Women were 40.2% of full-time academic teaching staff at Canadian universities in 2016-2017, an increase from 37.6% in 2010–2011.6

Men Professors Earn More Than Women Professors on Average7

In 2014, women full-time permanent university professors in Canada earned an average of $90,123.8

• This is 86.4% of what male university professors earned.9 

Europe

The Higher Up the Academic Ladder, the Wider the Gender Gap10

Women academics held 40.6% of academic positions across the 28 countries of the European Union (EU-28) in 2013.11 

• Women accounted for 20.9% of Grade A positions, 37.1% of Grade B positions, and 45.1% of Grade C positions.12 
• Women were a minority among senior academics (Grade A) in many European countries, including Belgium (15.6%), Germany (17.3%), the United Kingdom (17.5%), France (19.3%), Switzerland (19.3%), and Sweden (23.8%).13 

European women hold few positions in academic leadership. In the EU-28, women were only 20.1% of heads of higher education institutions in 2014.14
 

Women Academics in the UK Are Paid Less Than Men15

In 2015–2016, women on academic contracts earned, on average, 12% less than their male counterparts in the United Kingdom.16

India

Slightly More Than a Quarter of Professors in Indian Academia Are Women17

In 2015–2016, Indian women held 25.8% of Professor and equivalent faculty positions, 34.8% of Reader and Associate Professor faculty positions, and 39.3% of Lecturer/Assistant Professor faculty positions.18 

Japan

Parity Has Been Reached at Junior Colleges, but Universities Lag Behind19

In 2016, women represented over half (52.2%) of full-time junior college teachers in Japan, but just 23.7% of full-time university teachers.20

United States

Women Are Less Likely Than Men to Achieve Tenure21

While women held nearly half (48.9%) of all tenure-track positions in 2015, they held just 38.4% of tenured positions.22 

Women were more likely to be found in lower-ranking academic positions.23

• While women represent over half (51.5%) of Assistant Professors and are near parity (44.9%) among Associate Professors, they accounted for less than a third (32.4%) of Professors in 2015.24
• Women held over half (57.0%) of all instructor positions, among the lowest ranking positions in academia.25 
• 22.1% of women faculty are in non-tenure-track positions, compared to 16.8% of men faculty.26 
   

Women of Color Are Underrepresented in Academia27

Asian women held 4.9% of tenure-track positions and 3.0% of tenured positions.

Black women held 3.6% of tenure-track positions and 2.3% of tenured positions.

Latinas held 2.7% of tenure-track positions and 2.4% of tenured positions.
 

Mothers in Academia Often Face a “Baby Penalty”28

In the sciences, married women with children are 35% less likely than married men with children to attain tenure-track positions after completing their PhDs.29
 

Men Outearn Women at All Faculty Levels30

At all categories of institutions, full professors who are women earned on average $98,524 a year compared to $104,493 for their male colleagues in 2016–2017. That’s 94.3% of what men earned.31
 

More Women Are Becoming College Presidents, but Progress Remains Slow32

From 1986 to 2016 the number of women college and university presidents jumped from 10% to 30%, a 200% increase.33 

• Racial diversity rose from 13% to 17% between 2011 and 2016.34 

Additional Resources

American Association of University Professors, “Women in the Academic Profession.”

Center for WorkLife Law, Effective Policies and Programs for Retention and Advancement of Women in Academia (2013).

Penelope M. Huang, Breaking Through Glass Ceilings and Maternal Walls: Focus Group Findings (Center for WorkLife Law, 2008).  

Mary Ann Mason, Nicholas H. Wolfinger, and Marc Goulden, Do Babies Matter? Gender and Family in the Ivory Tower (Rutgers University Press, 2013).

Danica Savonick and Cathy N. Davidson, “Gender Bias in Academe: An Annotated Bibliography of Important Recent Studies,” HASTAC, February 27, 2017. 

How to cite this product: Catalyst, Quick Take: Women in Academia (October 20, 2017).

• 1. Glenda Strachan, David Peetz, Gillian Whitehouse, Janis Bailey, Kaye Broadbent, Robyn May, Carolyn Troup, and Michelle Nesic, Women, Careers and Universities: Where To From Here? (Centre for Work, Organisation and Wellbeing, Griffith University, 2016): p. 6.
• 2. Australian Government, Department of Education and Training, “Table 2.6: Number of Full-Time and Fractional Full-Time Staff by State, Higher Education Institution, Current Duties and Gender, 2016,” Selected Higher Education Statistics—2016 Staff Data, 2016 Staff Numbers (2016).
• 3. Australian Government, Department of Education and Training, “Table 2.6: Number of Full-Time and Fractional Full-Time Staff by State, Higher Education Institution, Current Duties and Gender, 2016,” Selected Higher Education Statistics—2016 Staff Data, 2016 Staff Numbers (2016).
• 4. Australian Government, Department of Education and Training, “Table 2.6: Number of Full-Time and Fractional Full-Time Staff by State, Higher Education Institution, Current Duties and Gender, 2016,” Selected Higher Education Statistics—2016 Staff Data, 2016 Staff Numbers (2016).
• 5. Statistics Canada, “Number and Salaries of Full-Time Teaching Staff at Canadian Universities,” The Daily (April 25, 2017).
• 6. Statistics Canada, “Number and Salaries of Full-Time Teaching Staff at Canadian Universities,” The Daily (April 25, 2017).
• 7. Canadian Association of University Teachers, “Table 2.14: Average Salaries of Full-Time Permanent Women University Professors, College and Other Vocational Instructors, and All Occupations,” CAUT Almanac of Post-Secondary Education in Canada (2016).
• 8. Canadian Association of University Teachers, “Table 2.14: Average Salaries of Full-Time Permanent Women University Professors, College and Other Vocational Instructors, and All Occupations,” CAUT Almanac of Post-Secondary Education in Canada (2016).
• 9. Canadian Association of University Teachers, “Table 2.14: Average Salaries of Full-Time Permanent Women University Professors, College and Other Vocational Instructors, and All Occupations,” CAUT Almanac of Post-Secondary Education in Canada (2016).
• 10. European Commission, She Figures 2015 (2016): p. 129.
• 11. European Commission, She Figures 2015 (2016): p. 129.
• 12. Grade A positions are “the single highest grade/post at which research is normally conducted within the institutional or corporate system,” Grade B positions “include all researchers working in positions which are not as senior as the top position (A) but definitely more senior than the newly qualified PhD holders (C),” and Grade C positions describe “the first grade/post into which a newly qualified PhD graduate would normally be recruited within the institutional or corporate system;” European Commission, She Figures 2015 (2016): p. 129, 192.
• 13. European Commission, She Figures 2015 (2016): p. 129.
• 14. European Commission, She Figures 2015 (2016): p. 140.
• 15. University and College Union, The Gender Pay Gap in Higher Education 2015/16 Data Report (2017).
• 16. University and College Union, The Gender Pay Gap in Higher Education 2015/16 Data Report (2017).
• 17. Government of India, Ministry of Human Resource Development, “Table 22: State & Post-Wise Number of Male & Female Teacher,” All India Survey on Higher Education (2015-16) (2017): p. T-71-T-72.
• 18. Government of India, Ministry of Human Resource Development, “Table 22: State & Post-Wise Number of Male & Female Teacher,” All India Survey on Higher Education (2015-16) (2017): p. T-71-T-72.
• 19. Government of Japan, Gender Equality Cabinet Office, “Education and Research Fields,” Women and Men in Japan 2017 (2017).
• 20. Government of Japan, Gender Equality Cabinet Office, “Education and Research Fields,” Women and Men in Japan 2017 (2017).
• 21. Martin J. Finkelstein, Valerie Martin Conley, and Jack H. Schuster, “Taking the Measure of Faculty Diversity,” Advancing Higher Education (TIAA Institute, 2016): p. 4.
• 22. National Center for Education Statistics, IPEDS Data Center, "Full-Time Instructional Staff, by Faculty and Tenure Status, Academic Rank, Race/Ethnicity, and Gender (Degree-Granting Institutions): Fall 2015," Fall Staff 2015 Survey (2016).
• 23. National Center for Education Statistics, IPEDS Data Center, "Full-Time Instructional Staff, by Faculty and Tenure Status, Academic Rank, Race/Ethnicity, and Gender (Degree-Granting Institutions): Fall 2015," Fall Staff 2015 Survey (2016).
• 24. National Center for Education Statistics, IPEDS Data Center, "Full-Time Instructional Staff, by Faculty and Tenure Status, Academic Rank, Race/Ethnicity, and Gender (Degree-Granting Institutions): Fall 2015," Fall Staff 2015 Survey (2016).
• 25. National Center for Education Statistics, IPEDS Data Center, "Full-Time Instructional Staff, by Faculty and Tenure Status, Academic Rank, Race/Ethnicity, and Gender (Degree-Granting Institutions): Fall 2015," Fall Staff 2015 Survey (2016).
• 26. National Center for Education Statistics, IPEDS Data Center, "Full-Time Instructional Staff, by Faculty and Tenure Status, Academic Rank, Race/Ethnicity, and Gender (Degree-Granting Institutions): Fall 2015," Fall Staff 2015 Survey (2016).
• 27. National Center for Education Statistics, IPEDS Data Center, "Full-Time Instructional Staff, by Faculty and Tenure Status, Academic Rank, Race/Ethnicity, and Gender (Degree-Granting Institutions): Fall 2015," Fall Staff 2015 Survey (2016).
• 28. Mary Ann Mason, “The Baby Penalty,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, August 5, 2013.
• 29. Marc Goulden, Karie Frasch, Mary Ann Mason, and The Center for American Progress, Staying Competitive: Patching America’s Leaky Pipeline in the Sciences (2009): p. 2.
• 30. American Association of University Professors, Visualizing Change: The Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession, 2016-17 (2017): p. 7.
• 31. American Association of University Professors, "Table 3: Average Salary for Men and Women Faculty, by Category, Affiliation, and Academic Rank, 2016–17 (Dollars)," Visualizing Change: The Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession, 2016-17 (2017): p. 16.
• 32. “Comprehensive Demographic Profile of American College Presidents Shows Slow Progress in Diversifying Leadership Ranks, Concerns About Funding,” American Council on Education press release, June 20, 2017.
• 33. Bryan J. Cook, "The American College President Study: Key Findings and Takeaways," American Council on Education, Spring Supplement 2012 (2012); American Council on Education, American College President Study 2017 (2017).
• 34. American Council on Education, American College President Study 2017 (2017).