The Status of Women Faculty at the University of Chicago

The inaugural Report on the Status of Academic Women at the University of Chicago was recently released by the university’s Women’s Leadership Council.

In 1892, nine of the original 77 faculty members at the University of Chicago were women. Thus, women made up 12 percent of the faculty. By 1972, the number of women on faculty had multiplied to 100. But at that time, women comprised only 8 percent of the total faculty. By 2010, the number of women faculty had increased to 273 and women comprised a quarter of the total faculty.

Over the course of the first decade of the 21st century, the number of women faculty members increased from 209 to 273. But in the shorter term, there has been a slight downturn. There were 283 women faculty members in 2008, 10 more than in 2010.

During the decade, 106 men were recruited and hired to full professor positions at the University of Chicago. During this period, 21 women were hired as full professors.

Of the 273 women faculty in 2010, 172 held tenure. Since 2000, the number of tenured women increased from 126 to 172, an increase of 36.5 percent. During this period the number of tenured male faculty members increased by 5.3 percent.

In 2010, women were a majority of the faculty at the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration. In the Humanities Division, women made up 38 percent of the total faculty. But in the Physical Sciences Division, women were only 10 percent of the total faculty. At the Booth School of Business, women made up 13 percent of the faculty.

Readers interested in downloading the report can do so here.