Despite more female representation at Emory across all levels, female students and professors still notice differences in how they are perceived. Whether it be their hair style, the way they dress, or even how they carry themselves - women are constantly under scrutiny in academic fields due to existing stereotypes of their academic abilities.
Emory women in academia say they continue to face scrutiny and prejudice, especially in the sciences.
Maria Mendoza-Contreras (25C) explained that she didn’t notice a significant difference in the way she was treated during her first semester, as all of her professors were female. However, this changed the following semester.
“It was when I took a class in my second semester where most students identified as male that I noticed I was being treated differently from some of my classmates,” Mendoza said.
She was often the only girl in her group projects and noticed that her contributions were often “ignored and only taken seriously after another male student supported them or ‘re-explained’ them.”
Sexism in higher education not only affects women at the individual level, but also academic disciplines as a whole. Vice Provost of Academic Affairs Pamela Scully, who is also a tenured professor in the women’s, gender and sexuality studies and African studies departments, noted that areas of study grapple with waning respect as they become less male-dominated.
“There is a history and tendency for any field to decline in status the moment more women than men get into it,” Scully said. “We have seen over the years, I would say, a decline in the status of history as a discipline, and I would surmise that one of the reasons is that now there are a lot of women in that profession.”
Anjuli Webster (25G), a Ph.D. candidate in history at Emory, shared that although she hadn’t experienced gender prejudice in academia herself, a bigger issue is white supremacy and racism.
“I think that white supremacy/racism is a more fundamental historical force shaping discrimination in academia,” Webster wrote in a 3/1 email to the Wheel.
Assistant Professor of Biology Micaela Martinez agreed, noting that she is “more minoritized being a woman of color rather than just being a woman.”
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, among those with tenure-track positions, Asian women are 5.3%, Black women are 3.8% and Latina women are 3.1%. For tenured positions, Asian women are 3.5%, Black women are 2.3% and Latina women are 2.6%. These low percentages indicate that women of color are less likely to have an advanced position in academia than white women, pressing Martinez’s statement that race may be a more important factor than gender.
Additionally, in what is now coined the “baby penalty,” women in academia are often faced with sanctions in their careers after deciding to have children. Married women with young children are 35% less likely to get tenure-track jobs compared to men and are 33% less likely to get a job compared to unmarried women without children.
To mitigate this issue, Scully stressed the importance of both childcare and work schedules that accommodate parents.
“We should have [childcare] available,” Scully said. “We need to make sure that our chairs understand that you shouldn’t have faculty meetings at [5 p.m.] in the afternoon. I know it affects all parents, but it is still true that women end up doing a lot of [child rearing].”
Working women spend more time on household and familial responsibilities than working men. A 2013 Pew Research study found that on average, fathers spend roughly 31% of their working hours on unpaid work, like housework and childcare, while the number for women is about 60%.
Martinez explained how the “baby penalty” can be particularly problematic in STEM fields.
“In ecology and evolutionary biology, because there is a lot of fieldwork, there’s a lot of pressure on women, especially in their early years, if they decide to have children,” Martinez said.
Martinez also shared that while working at a previous institution, she worried she would face scrutiny if she shared her decision on whether to have children.
Now as a professor, Martinez said she feels comfortable in her own skin and respected as a scientist. While she used to tone down how she dressed and how she did her hair, she now embraces who she is.
Women across the world face discrimination in academia. According to the Publications Office of the European Union, women held 41.3% of academic positions across 28 countries in the European Union in 2016. Moreover, in United Kingdom universities, women earned 15.1% less than men in 2019, according to the University and College Union.
In Canada, 28% of professors, 44% of associate professors, 50% of assistant professors and 55% of positions below assistant professor were composed of women between 2018 and 2019. That same year, women in academia earned $158,625 on average compared to their male counterparts' $166,925.
Similarly, in Japan, women held 24.8% of positions of full-time university faculty.
Compared to ratios of women to men in academia around the globe, Martinez said that the women-to-men student and faculty ratios at Emory are rather encouraging. In order to make Emory more gender-inclusive, Mendoza said that focusing on both the student body and faculty at an institutional level would help to bridge the gap. She noted the importance of providing training and activities for students and faculty that could help eliminate bias and help professors better engage with students of differing genders.
Emory should “promote inclusion so students, regardless of their pre-existing societal views, can understand and emerge into the institution’s mission of inclusion,” Mendoza said.
Valerie Carver (25C) contributed reporting.
