The Gender Gap in Faculty Positions at the University of Michigan

Nationwide, women have nearly closed the gender gap in faculty positions at U.S. colleges and universities. (See WIAReport post.) Yet the gender gap in full professor positions remains wide. In 2017, women held just 32.8 percent of all full professor positions in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

Data from the University of Michigan shows that the university has been slow to keep up with the national trend. In 2019, women make up 35 percent of all tenured or tenure-track faculty at the university. This was up from 30 percent in 2010.

As is the case nationally, the gender gap is the most pronounced at the full professor level. In 2019, there were 481 women in full professor positions at the University of Michigan. They made up just 28 percent of all full professors. But again, some progress has been made. In 2010, women were 23 percent of all full professors at the University of Michigan.

Women were 41 percent of all associate professors at the Unversity of Michigan in 2019, compared to 37 percent in 2010.