Women Making Slow Progress in Faculty Posts at Stanford University

Stanford University recently released a report on its progress in increasing the diversity of its faculty. The data shows that in 2011 there were 510 women on the Stanford faculty, making up 26.4 percent of the total faculty. Despite the low level of women on the Stanford faculty, considerable progress has been made. The number of women faculty increased by 144 over the past decade. In 2001, women made up 21.5 percent of the university’s faculty.

If the rate of increase in the percentage of women faculty over the past decade (roughly a half percentage point increase per year) were projected into the future, it would take nearly half a century before women would reach equality with men on the university’s faculty.

The most current data show that women are 34 percent of the assistant professors, 31 percent of the associate professors, but just 21 percent of the full professors. There are 231 women who hold the rank of full professor at Stanford.