Women Faculty at Stanford: Making Progress But Still a Long Way to Equality

Data from the Department of Education shows that women make up 43 percent of all full-time instructional faculty at degree-granting institutions in the United States. But at Stanford University, a new report on faculty diversity shows that women make up only 26.3 percent of the total faculty at the university.

In breaking down the data for particular colleges and schools at Stanford, women make up 45 percent of the total faculty in the School of Education but only 14 percent of the faculty at the School of Engineering. The figures show an increase in women faculty at every college and school at Stanford over the past decade. But the number of women faculty numbers in the social sciences declined from 2005 to 2010.

In referring to the women faculty numbers, Karen Cook, vice provost for faculty development and diversity at Stanford, stated, “Of course there are more at the assistant professor level and fewer at the full professor level, but the numbers are moving in the right direction.”