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No Room at the Top for Women: MIT's Glass Ceiling | |||||||||||||||
Subject | Discrimination | ||||||||||||||
Topic | Labor Markets | ||||||||||||||
Key Words | Discrimination, Education, Salaries | ||||||||||||||
News Story |
MIT has admitted that female professors in the School of Science have been discriminated against in terms of hiring, awards, promotions, committee membership, research money, and space allocation. The proportion of women in science decreases as the level of education increases, and only 8 percent of the science faculty are women. The women feel more marginalized as they become more senior in the university. There has never been a female department head or associate head. A study revealed that male colleagues made unwarranted assumptions about female faculty work habits and their need for raises, and overlooked women's comments in a meeting. MIT is unlikely to be the only institution with discrimination: it is simply the only one to admit it. The American Association of University Professors states that the problem is widespread. Nationally, since 1975, while the proportion of faculty that is female has risen from 23 to 35 percent, the difference between male and female salaries has widened. (Updated May 1, 1999) |
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Source | Carey Goldberg, "M.I.T. Acknowledges Bias Against Female Professors", The New York Times, March 23, 1999. |
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