The Large Persisting Gender Gap in Faculty Posts in Higher Education

In 2009, the latest year complete data is available, there were 728,977 full-time instructional faculty at degree-granting institutions in the United States. Of these, 313,156, or just under 43 percent, were women.

The gender gap in faculty posts is most pronounced at the full professor level. In 2009, there were 177,581 full professors at degree-granting institutions. There were 49,650 women and 127,931 men in full professor posts. Thus, women made up only 38.8 percent of all full professors.

In associate professor posts in 2009, there were 87,965 men and only 61,016 women. So women were 41 percent of all associate professors.

Men outnumbered women by a slim margin as assistant professors. Only in the positions of instructor and lecturer did women outnumber men.