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since that time, with women now earning 450.18 master’s degrees for every 301.58 earned by men in 2012-13
(“Number of master’s degrees,” 2013). Finally, in what is the most important field of this research, females have
been earning similar numbers of doctorate degrees for roughly the last fifteen years, surpassing males in the
year 2005-06 (“Number of doctoral degrees,” 2013). In this category, males and females have remained fairly
close, with males earning 85.1 doctorates for every 89.93 that females earned in 2012-13. Statista predicts that
this difference will remain close with females only earning a few more doctorates than males per year (“Num-
ber of doctoral degrees,” 2013). These data do not account for differences in regards to specific field, like psy-
chology versus biology, but rather represent the overall amount of degrees earned for each gender. The fact that
there are more females than males in every type of degree program has led people to go so far as to ask where
the men are these days (Curtis, 2011, p. 1).
Employment in Higher Education
The fact that women are earning more doctoral degrees than men but still not being equally represented
among faculty at institutions of higher education is where the entire problem lies; if less women were earn-
ing doctorates, the differences could be explained by a lack of hirable women candidates, but this is not the
case. Women are simply just not reaching equality in terms of employment in higher education. Therefore, the
next important information to be analyzed is the number of women, as compared to men, in different higher
education positions.
Institution Type.
The first factor to delve into here is institution type, meaning community colleges, baccalaureate programs,
graduate institutions, and doctoral programs. At the lowest type of institution in higher education, associate-
granting institutions, also known as community colleges, women have actually reached equality in representa-
tion in faculty. Women make up 51% of both part- and full-time faculty at community colleges (West & Curtis,
2006, p. 6). However, these are the only types of institutions at which women make up roughly half of both
types of faculty. In baccalaureate programs, women only make up 42% of full-time faculty while constituting
51% of part-time faculty, while in master’s programs women compose 42% of full-time professors and 50% of
part-time professors (West & Curtis, 2006, p. 6). At institutions that offer doctoral programs, women only make
up 34% of full-time faculty and 46.5% of part-time faculty (West & Curtis, 2006, p. 6).
Part-time versus full-time.
As is evident from the aforementioned statistics, women and men also differ in terms of part- and full-time
employment as professors: females hold fewer full-time positions than do men. According to West and Curtis
(2006), this discrepancy has almost always been around, as in 1976 women made up 22% of all full-time
faculty and in 1996 this number had only risen to 32% (p. 6). An even more gradual increase was apparent in
2005-06, with women comprising only 39% of all full-time positions (West & Curtis, 2006, p. 6). On the other
hand, women make up 48% of all part-time positions at any level of institution (West & Curtis, 2006, p. 7-8).
Tenure and non-tenure. The next factor that shows the discrepancies between men and women is tenure, or the
lack thereof. The only category where women hold more positions than men is the non-tenure category where
women were 52% of non-tenured faculty in 2005-06 (West & Curtis, 2006, p. 8). Combining full- and part-
time statistics with this tenure variable, 30% of women in full-time positions were not tenured while only 18%
of men in full-time positions were not tenured (West & Curtis, 2006, p. 8). Part-time positions are typically
non-tenured, which women have been established to hold more of already. There is little mobility in non-ten-
ured positions, meaning it is unlikely to go from a non-tenured position to a tenure-track position. Of tenure-
track positions, women make up 41% at doctoral institutions while making up 53% at associate institutions
and 47% at master’s granting institutions (West & Curtis, 2006, p. 9-10). In terms of tenured faculty, women
make up only 31% of these positions overall at any type of institution. Even though the amount of tenured
faculty has decreased in general, the gap has not closed significantly between the number of males and females
with tenure (West & Curtis, 2006, p. 10). As previously mentioned, these differences would be explainable if
there were not an adequate number of female candidates from which to pull. However, since there are more
females than males obtaining doctorate degrees, the discrepancies cannot be equated to a lack of candidates.
An Experiment of Hirability and Tenurability
In order to examine the reasoning behind this issue, an experiment about the hirability and tenurability of
a candidate will be examined, as it will provide a solid example of the disparities of the process. To set up this
experiment, researchers Steinpreis, Anders, and Ritzke (1999) sent out four versions of one female professor’s
résumé: one from the beginning of her career, when she was trying to get hired, and one more recent from
trying to get tenure, each with one version having a female’s name and the other version having a male’s name
(p. 512-515). They picked those to whom they sent the résumés carefully, ensuring there were equal males and
females accounted for. The goal was to see if there were differences in hiring and tenuring practices based on
gender alone, as the résumés were otherwise equal (Steinpreis et al., 1999, p. 512-515). According to the results,
both males and females look at the candidate’s ability to perform research, his or her personality, and his or her
ability to collaborate, regardless of gender (Steinpreis et al., 1999, p. 517, 525). This could create unrealistic ex-
pectations, as the different genders may be different in these regards. Both genders were also more likely to hire