Female faculty ask for better
Say tenure efforts are good, pay not
By: Katy Doll, Staff Writer
Issue date: 3/19/07 Section: University
Almost 130 years after the first woman taught a class at the University, female faculty members say the school is doing a better job of helping professors raise children but needs to address disparity in pay.
Recognizing the need to provide better support for female faculty and address concerns specific to them, the University has taken action, such as creating the Committee on the Status of Women, part of the Faculty Council.
Four years ago, the committee performed a salary analysis and determined that there were discrepancies between male and female earnings.
The committee then attempted to remedy these, asking for an annual report from each department with gender-related categories. These reports detail information that departments normally report, but now have a gender-specific component.
The committee also asked all female faculty to return a survey of concerns and general rating of the atmosphere and programs at the University, said Susan Lord, chairwoman of the committee.
Lord said that she thinks the environment at UNC is better than it used to be but that there always will be a need for committees such as hers.
"I think once it's in place, it brings forward some concerns that are gender specific, and how important those are varies in time," she said. "But it's the kind of thing you can't ever let go of - it has to be there all the time."
The University is a far cry from the school that Emily M. Coe witnessed in 1878 when she became the first woman to teach at UNC by leading a summer school course.
Sallie B. Marks was the first woman to join the regular faculty 49 years later in 1927.
But women faculty still were rare and discriminated against for years. The faculty club was formed with the original name "Men's Faculty Club" and was closed to women until the 1950s, despite its goal to represent the concerns of all faculty.
The tide began to change in 1973 when an affirmative action program began on campus, which helped to increase the number of women on the faculty.
Recognizing the need to provide better support for female faculty and address concerns specific to them, the University has taken action, such as creating the Committee on the Status of Women, part of the Faculty Council.
Four years ago, the committee performed a salary analysis and determined that there were discrepancies between male and female earnings.
The committee then attempted to remedy these, asking for an annual report from each department with gender-related categories. These reports detail information that departments normally report, but now have a gender-specific component.
The committee also asked all female faculty to return a survey of concerns and general rating of the atmosphere and programs at the University, said Susan Lord, chairwoman of the committee.
Lord said that she thinks the environment at UNC is better than it used to be but that there always will be a need for committees such as hers.
"I think once it's in place, it brings forward some concerns that are gender specific, and how important those are varies in time," she said. "But it's the kind of thing you can't ever let go of - it has to be there all the time."
The University is a far cry from the school that Emily M. Coe witnessed in 1878 when she became the first woman to teach at UNC by leading a summer school course.
Sallie B. Marks was the first woman to join the regular faculty 49 years later in 1927.
But women faculty still were rare and discriminated against for years. The faculty club was formed with the original name "Men's Faculty Club" and was closed to women until the 1950s, despite its goal to represent the concerns of all faculty.
The tide began to change in 1973 when an affirmative action program began on campus, which helped to increase the number of women on the faculty.
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