Geography Scholar Files a Sexual Discrimination Lawsuit Against the University of North Carolina

Altha Cravey, a member of the geography department faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has filed a federal lawsuit against the university. The suit alleges gender discrimination and retaliation against the professor after she raised concerns about sexual and racial discrimination at the university.

Dr. Cravey alleges that she was passed over for promotion in favor of men who had less experience. She was granted tenure in 2000 but has been denied promotion to full professor ever since. Dr. Cravey has been a campus activist and at times has been a vocal critic of the university’s administration. In the lawsuit the plaintiff notes that “Dr. Cravey has been a vocal advocate for the equal and fair treatment of women and minority faculty and students within the UNC system throughout her career.”

The lawsuit notes that only one woman has been promoted to full professor of geography in the 100-year history of the department. The plaintiff also states that Dr. Cravey has only been assigned a graduate assistant three times over a 23-year career.

Dr. Cravey joined the faculty at the University of North Carolina in 1993. She is the author of Women and Work in Mexico’s Maquiladoras (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1998).

Dr. Cravey is a graduate of Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis. She earned a master’s degree at the University of Wisconsin and a Ph.D. in geography at the University of Iowa.