The Faculty Gender Gap at Purdue University

Women make up just 28 percent of the tenure and tenure-track faculty at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. Of the 67 department heads at Purdue, only 11 are women.

Beverly Sypher, vice provost for faculty affairs at Purdue, admits, “Our percentage of women who are full professors is shamefully low. The largest colleges at Purdue have historically had the fewest number of women students and therefore the fewest number of women faculty.” She has started a program called “Purdue Women Lead,” which is designed to help women progress into department chair positions and other leadership posts. “But,” Sypher says, “many women opt not to take that path.”

Dr. Sypher is a graduate of Western Kentucky University. She earned a Ph.D. at the University of Michigan.