Harvard Has a Long Way to Go to Reach Gender Parity in Faculty Positions

The press release announcing the Harvard University’s annual report on faculty development and diversity says that “Harvard’s faculty is more diverse than ever.” The university reports that women are now 30 percent of all tenured or tenure-track faculty. But given that in 2018 women are less than one third of the total tenure or tenure-track faculty is hardly news that should be celebrated. The university also notes that 42 percent of faculty members that joined the faculty this year are women. This figure, too, seems low given the demographics of higher education today.

According to the report, in 2018 women make up 40 percent of tenure-track faculty. In 2009, women made up 38 percent of tenure-track faculty. Again, this seems like snail-like progress. Women have made more progress in tenured positions rising from 20 percent in 2009 to 27 percent today. Women are less than 20 percent of the tenured faculty in the sciences and engineering.

In Harvard’s professional schools, women are 38 percent of the tenure-track faculty and 26 percent of the tenured faculty. Women make up just over one fifth of the tenured faculty at Harvard Business School and the Kennedy School of Government. Women are less than one quarter of tenured faculty in Harvard Medical School and Harvard Law School.