Careers of Women Faculty Members Are Burdened by “Academic Housekeeping” Chores

Research by Cassandra Guarino, professor of education and public policy at the University of California, Riverside, finds that women faculty members continue to have a disproportionate share of what she calls “academic housekeeping” duties. These duties include serving on committees and handling departmental administrative chores.

Professor Guarino’s research found that women faculty members are called on to perform these duties at a rate of 1.5 times the rate of male faculty members. And the discrepancy was even greater for women in STEM disciplines. She cites another study which found that women devote 36 more minutes per week to these activities than men.

Writing on The Conversation.com, Professor Guarino calls on colleges and universities to “acknowledge and raise awareness about this issue by making all service assignments public knowledge. There’s no reason why a professor’s job should be different for women and men on the same campus. Simply making faculty aware of this gender gap and holding their schools accountable would go a long way toward leveling the playing field for women in academia.”

Professor Guarino is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley. She holds two master’s degrees and a Ph.D. in the economics of education from Stanford University.