The Gender Gap in Faculty Positions at the University of Missouri

The mainstream press is full of stories documenting the significant progress women have achieved in higher education. But don’t think for a minute that gender equality has been achieved. At many colleges and universities across the United States, women are vastly underrepresented in faculty positions, particularly those posts at the higher end of the academic ladder. Here’s just one example:

According to the latest data, in 2011 there were 692 women faculty members at the University of Missouri at Columbia. The statistics show that in 2011 there were 1,257 male faculty members at the university. Therefore, women made up 35.5 percent of the total faculty.

If we look at faculty at the rank of full professor, women are doing even worse. In 2011, there were 121 women serving as full professors compared to 449 men. Thus, women were only 21.2 percent of full professors.

In fairness to the university, some progress is being made. A decade ago, women were 29.3 percent of the total faculty and 18.4 percent of the full professors. But at this rate of improvement, gender equality in teaching posts will take a very long time to achieve.