Retention and promotion of women and underrepresented minority faculty in science and engineering at four large land grant institutions

• Published in: PloS one 2017-11, Vol.12 (11), p.e0187285-e0187285
• Main Authors: Gumpertz, Marcia, Durodoye, Raifu, Griffith, Emily, Wilson, Alyson
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Academic disciplines; Academic tenure; Agricultural engineering; Agricultural technology; American Indians; Analysis; Attrition; Biological effects; Biology and Life Sciences; Biomedical engineering; Biomedicine; Career Mobility; College campuses; College faculty; Doctoral degrees; Ecology and Environmental Sciences; Engineering; Engineering - education; Engineering and Technology; Faculty; Female; Gender; Gender differences; Higher education; Hiring; Hispanic Americans; Humans; Initiatives; Institutions; Male; Marginality; Mathematical analysis; Medical sciences; Men; Minority Groups; Multiculturalism & pluralism; Native Americans; Natural resources; Neurosciences; People and Places; Personnel Loyalty; Personnel records; Practice; Probability; Promotion; Race; Racism; Retention; Science - education; Science Policy; Social Sciences; Student retention; Studies; Survival analysis; Technical education; Tenure; Universities - organization & administration; Women; Workplace diversity
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0187285

In the most recent cohort, 2002-2015, the experiences of men and women differed substantially among STEM disciplines. Female assistant professors were more likely than men to leave the institution and to leave without tenure in engineering, but not in the agricultural, biological and biomedical sciences and natural resources or physical and mathematical sciences. In contrast, the median times to promotion from associate to full professor were similar for women and men in engineering and the physical and mathematical sciences, but one to two years longer for women than men in the agricultural, biological and biomedical sciences and natural resources. URM faculty hiring is increasing, but is well below the proportions earning doctoral degrees in STEM disciplines. The results are variable and because of the small numbers of URM faculty, the precision and power for comparing URM faculty to other faculty were low. In three of the four institutions, lower fractions of URM faculty than other faculty hired in the 2002-2006 time frame left without tenure. Also, in the biological and biomedical and physical and mathematical sciences no URM faculty left without tenure. On the other hand, at two of the institutions, significantly more URM faculty left before their tenth anniversary than other faculty and in engineering significantly more URM faculty than other faculty left before their tenth anniversary. We did not find significant differences in promotion patterns between URM and other faculty.