Dive Brief:
- Women represent only 42% of assistant professors, 34% of associate professors and 23% of full professors — and in nearly one-third of institutions, women represent less than 10% of tenured faculty, according to a New York Stem Cell Foundation study of women in STEM careers.
- Even though 16% have policies that promote diversity, only 8% of respondents said they held minimum requirements for gender representation on decision-making committees, the study revealed.
- The findings come from data collected over four years from global biomedical research institutes — compiled through the group's Initiative on Women in Science and Engineering. The findings were analyzed in a collaboration with a team at the University of Michigan.
Dive Insight:
To achieve gender parity in some professions, direct intervention is needed, according to research from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This appears to be particularly true for STEM industries — there is no state in America that boasts more women than men who hold a degree in a STEM field, according to data compiled by Typing.com. This means the pipeline for STEM careers lacks women.
Beyond the STEM industries, gender disparity continues to exist in the workplace. Some household names have made concerted efforts toward inclusion. Nordstrom, for example, said it reached 100% pay equity across gender and race in August. Despite individual cases of progress, men still dominate leadership positions, according to an IBM Institute for Business Value study published in March. Women make up only 18% of senior leadership positions, the report found.
