Stopping the Tenure Clock May Help Men More Than Women

A study led by Heather Antecol, the Boswell Professor of Economics at Claremont McKenna College in California, finds that men may actually benefit from policies that delay the tenure clock for all new parents more so than women. Typically, these policies give faculty members who are new parents an extra year to complete the tenure process.

The authors surveyed 1,299 assistant professors in 49 economic departments at major universities in the United States. The results showed that tenure rate for male faculty members who took advantage of the stop-the-clock policies increased by 19 percent. But the tenure success rate for women who took an added year dropped by 22 percent. The authors found that the extra time enabled men to publish more in leading journals, while women, who presumably spend more time in childcare activities, were not able to publish more. This publishing edge appears to give men an advantage in tenure decisions.

Professor Antecol holds bachelor’s and master’s degree from Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, and a Ph.D. from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.

The study, Equal but Inequitable: Who Benefits from Gender-Neutral Tenure Clock Stopping Policies?, was published by the Institute for the Study of Labor in Germany. It may be downloaded by clicking here.