Women Faculty in Community Colleges: Investigating the Mystery.

The author reviews recent literature on women faculty in higher education and in two-year institutions specifically. Existing research indicates that despite their higher numbers in administrative and faculty positions at community college, women often are marginalized because they serve in lower level and untenured slots that are concentrated in a few disciplines at less pay than men in similar positions. Likewise, women hold a higher percentage of instructor and lecturer positions that are non-tenure-track than men. Based on the literature review, the author points to the need for more research on women as faculty at both two- and four-year institutions to determine common social constructs that might prevent women from climbing the ladder to high-level faculty and administrative positions. The author delineates a research strategy that includes qualitative and quantitative data collection on women as graduate students and as professionals at different career levels across disciplines at both two- and four-year institutions.

Careers in the academy have been changing for several decades as the American higher education system has evolved from one of elite exclusivity to a multi-level mass education system. Expanding numbers and types of institutions have resulted in different roles and responsibilities for faculty members: Flagship research universities emphasize individual scholarship whereas comprehensive state colleges and community colleges focus on educating masses of undergraduates in a large variety of disciplines. At the same time, financial pressures on both public and private higher education institutions have resulted in cost-saving measures that have affected faculty ranks. Colleges now rely on more part-time and non-tenure-track limited-term teaching positions than in the past, especially at cash-strapped community colleges (Cohen & Brawer, 1996).

Faculty and administrators at both research universities and community colleges face organizational issues such as teaching versus research, tenure- versus non-tenure-track positions, part-time academics, funding battles, science versus the arts and literature, and remedial coursework versus college-level studies. Community colleges, in particular, have gone through major restructuring efforts during the past several decades to fulfill their expanding missions of vocational education for those students not continuing on to a four-year institution for a baccalaureate degree, and adult and remedial education.

In the midst of such systemic-level change, a common pattern appears to be emerging. Relatively small numbers of women and members of ethnic minorities progress up the academic career ladder to the top as departmental leaders (Fox, 1995; West, 1995). Even tenure-track professors at the nation's different types of postsecondary institutions point to the existence of widespread institutional barriers to their advancement within the individual academic disciplinary structures (Fox, 1995; West, 1995). Despite the virtual parity in the numbers of women and men attending college and many graduate and professional school programs for the last decade, the numbers of women who advance to positions of academic prominence and leadership in all types of disciplines remains relatively small, except perhaps for such traditionally feminine pursuits as nursing and education (Fox, 1995). This review was completed to explore the literature involving women faculty members in higher education, with a particular focus on community colleges, and to explore the processes of faculty socialization and other formal and informal organizational structures that may contribute to the generally lower status of women in the academy. Furthermore, a new line of research will be proposed to expand understanding of this issue, which is important for all women in the nation's higher education institutions, both students and faculty.

Women Faculty in the Community Colleges and Beyond

In total, women make up around 33% of the faculty at institutions of higher education in general and around 38% of the faculty at community colleges, with minority female faculty making up 2.3% and 3.6% respectively of the total percentages (The Chronicle, 1998). Women faculty in higher education are likely to be serving in lower level and untenured slots, to be concentrated in a small number of disciplines, and to be paid less than men with comparable characteristics (Riger, Stokes, Raja, & Sullivan, 1997). The expansion of the higher education system has also resulted in the development of a new sector of the professoriate--part-time, non-tenured faculty members who have none of the advantages of recognized scholars at the research universities in the form of tenure and facilities for research but who carry more of the responsibility for educating the students in the department (Clark, 1987).

As Clark noted in 1987, the new "marginalized" professoriate then consisted of one-third to one-half of all faculty members in institutions of higher education who were in full-time, term appointments (non-tenure-track full-time positions). Such positions are given titles such as instructor and lecturer in many cases. In the 1994-95 academic year, 59% of full-time instructors were women, and 56.5% of faculty lecturers were women (West, 1995). Term appointees do not have the job stability and prestige accorded to tenured faculty. Studies of women in higher education indicate that women do indeed constitute a disproportionate number of these peripheral members of the academic social network in the department and the institution at large (Fox, 1995).

Demographic studies and statistical information from the National Center for Education Statistics (1996) indicate that a disproportionate number of women are either opting for or being pushed by a number of subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) influences toward careers as faculty members at community colleges. However, empirical research into their experiences and progress as new faculty members has been sparse. The numbers of women faculty members teaching at all levels are higher at community colleges than at research universities, liberal arts colleges, and comprehensive state colleges and universities (The Chronicle, 1998). Similarly, like their peers at four-year institutions, women faculty members in community colleges are not moving up the academic career ladder to positions as department leaders and college administrative leaders in the same proportions as they are being hired at the lower levels (Johnsrud, 1993; Riger, Stokes, Raja & Sullivan, 1997; Tarver, 1992).

According to Riger, Stokes, Raja and Sullivan (1997), demographic data indicate that the majority of women and minority faculty are concentrated at less prestigious, two-and four-year colleges and at the lower end of the faculty ranks (or in non-tenure-track positions). Even then, the demographic data is somewhat unclear, as designations or titles for various faculty positions change slightly or are not clearly defined in the different studies. Although the tenure and promotion requirements for two-year and four-year systems are different, the socialization of new faculty members plays a crucial role in the process. As at four-year institutions, little work has been done on the institutional and structural barriers to the success of women as faculty members at community colleges. As Olsen, Maple, and Stage (1995) state,

   Unfortunately, information that might help us to understand the demographic
   patterns we have found is incomplete. We need to know more about the
   institutional factors, as well as the personal and professional
   proclivities, needs, and interests, that determine women's and minorities'
   participation in higher education--and ultimately, their success in and
   satisfaction with the academic world. In particular, assumptions about how
   women and minority faculty function, and wish to function, may prove as
   damaging to their professional growth and development within the academic
   community as present discrimination and insensitivity. (pp. 267-268)

Given the demographic evidence of the larger numbers of women faculty participating in the higher education system at the community college level, it would be logical to conduct studies on how and why larger numbers of women with advanced degrees (master's and doctoral level) are joining community college faculties but failing to progress up the academic career ladder at these institutions. Twombly's 1993 review of the literature on this topic found that very little research was completed on the status of women faculty members at community colleges between 1970 and 1992. Although statistically women make up over one-third of two-year institution faculty members, just 6% of the articles reviewed concerned women faculty.

Rather, Twombly (1993) notes, 66% of the articles and research on women at community colleges reviewed in her study focused on women as students, and 18.4% of the articles concerned women administrators in the community colleges. Twombly further notes that many of the studies conducted consisted of comparing men to women on a variety of identified variables to determine why the women are or are not adapting to the traditionally male environment satisfactorily. Few researchers have examined the experiences of women faculty at community colleges as a stand-alone issue; instead they have focused on the comparisons between men and women faculty or have described programs and activities designed to help the women overcome their unequal (or unadapted) status on an individual basis (Twombly, 1993).

Because 56% of all community college students are women, and approximately 60% of the part-time students are women (National Center for Education Statistics, 1997, p. 188), studies of women faculty and administrators need to move beyond male-versus-female comparisons to comprehensive and in-depth explorations of women's experiences as faculty members at community colleges. Such research would help to define institutional solutions to economic and social issues facing women in all facets of the higher education system, such as families, child care, and elder care. As Tarver (1992) noted, the current system was organized under a different social and economic reality for a different class or type of faculty member, the one-wage-earner male as head-of-household, with a spouse at home to take care of the family. This outdated social construct exists at all institutions in the higher education system, from community colleges to research universities where publish or perish rules. The community college tenure system, however, may be somewhat easier on its participants. At some colleges, a full-time community college instructor receives tenure after three consecutive years of full-time teaching and service (Townsend, 1995). Nevertheless, few if any researchers have examined why more women than men tend to hold community college faculty positions.

Women at community colleges remain an enigma despite their much higher numbers in both faculty and administrative positions (Townsend, 1995; Twombly, 1993). As Townsend (1995) notes, some researchers believe that the high numbers of women faculty at community colleges provide evidence that women are marginalized in the professoriate as a whole. Although this view puts community colleges at the margins of the higher education system in terms of prestige and status, the numbers of students attending community colleges indicate that these institutions play a dynamic role in educating the nation's young adults and mature adults re-entering the educational system, and will continue to do so for many years to come, especially for women and minorities.

Enough demographic evidence exists to suggest that even at these institutions, which are perceived to be more open and friendly to women and their interests, women faculty members are again concentrated at the lower faculty ranks, especially in the part-time and non-tenured positions. Recent studies have found that the majority of part-time instructors in the community college are women, which is yet another way of marginalizing women faculty (Townsend, 1995). If more women are becoming faculty members at two-year colleges but are being relegated to part-time or temporary contract positions, then more is going on than simple "self-selection" by women opting for less demanding schedules to accommodate family and life-style choices. Moreover, many community colleges, unlike the four-year colleges and universities, are unionized, raising a large issue as to why more women are not moving up the academic ranks to leadership positions even with the assistance of union representation (Townsend, 1995).

Townsend (1995) asks if women faculty at community colleges perceive themselves to be marginal within the institution as compared to the male faculty. A more titillating question would be the following: What are the barriers to success at all of these very different types of institutions in the higher education system, and why are women ending up in the same place (on the margins and in nonleadership positions) at these institutions despite the institutions' structural differences?

No demographic evidence exists to suggest that women as a group want these part-time or non-tenure-track positions more than full-time tenure-track positions. Why do women faculty members choose to take more of the part-time, non-tenure-track positions? Twombly (1993) notes that few of the research articles on students at community colleges that used gender as a control variable offered evidence of differences in men and women on the variables of interest studied. Likewise, many of the studies that looked at sex differences found no or few significant differences between men and women in terms of aspirations, goals, and professional interests (Twombly, 1993). Can these results be applied to women and men faculty as well because they all start out as students themselves? Tierney and Bensimon (1996) summarize the issue at hand and the need for further exploration:

   Gender equity and nonsexist academic workplaces cannot be attained unless
   conscious attention is given to relations between men and women. We wish to
   dispel the widely held belief that gender blindness--the claim that the
   professor's sex is invisible--constitutes equal treatment for female and
   male academics. To the contrary, we maintain that the eradication of overt
   and covert discrimination against women requires critical and gender-based
   appraisals of academic structures, practices and policies, as well as the
   elimination of language and interactions that create overtly hostile,
   patronizing or indifferent workplaces for women. (p. 76)

Social and Institutional Organization

The socialization of new faculty members and their incorporation into the academic disciplinary and departmental cultures at the different types of institutions sometimes directly conflicts with the organizational problems of operating the institution as a whole. As community colleges struggle to expand and develop the institutional structures needed to serve their expanding educational goals and student populations, the conflict between departmental needs for new faculty and departmental responsibilities for developing new faculty members becomes even more difficult. Resolving these issues successfully will be important to both students and faculty members beginning their careers in a system that is in the midst of transformation. As Tierney (1997) notes, socialization of new faculty members is the key to successful organizational progress toward the educational goals of individual institutions and their surrounding communities:

   Culture is the sum of activities in the organization, and socialization is
   the process through which individuals acquire and incorporate an
   understanding of those activities. Culture is relatively constant and can
   be understood through reason. An organization's culture, then, teaches
   people how to behave, what to hope for, and what it means to succeed or
   fail. (p. 4)

While the systemic and institutional growing pains continue throughout the higher education system, building an intellectual community by socializing new faculty members at a college or university of any type remains vitally important. The sometimes haphazard methods of department-by-department hiring and promotion policies make it difficult for any new scholar, from any cultural or ethnic background, to negotiate the twists and turns of a tenure-track career (Clark, 1987; Tierney & Bensimon, 1996). Clark posits that the ethnic, gender, political, or socioeconomic backgrounds of the individuals striving to become the new professoriate are less important than their academic discipline and the structural frameworks of the institutions and departments within which these individuals must develop (Clark, 1987). On this note, with regard to community colleges, it must be recognized that community colleges have more formalized, structured hiring and tenure practices, with more specific guidelines and shorter timelines for the tenure process (Cohen & Brawer, 1996). If requirements for tenure are more structured and more clearly delineated in formal policies at community colleges, there may be fewer institutional barriers to achieving the rank of full tenured professor for new scholars. If new faculty members have a clearer picture of the teaching, research, and service components of the performance required of them, they may be able to negotiate the academic career path better.

As Tierney and Bensimon (1996) discuss, studies of women in academe demonstrate that female graduate students and new faculty members are often not part of the professional and social circles in which one learns about the nonacademic aspects of life in a university such as funding and negotiating release time for research. Participation in these informal networks is crucial to success and promotion within the organization. Many women who enter the academic world in non-tenure-track instructor or lecturer positions often remain there because they are outside the informal and the formal social and professional networks within the organization. Thus they remain unaware of the requirements for obtaining recognition and reward for their efforts in the form of promotions and tenure (Tierney & Bensimon, 1996).

Although some women may choose not to pursue promotions or tenure, others who would like to become more involved in leadership and decision-making in their departments and the colleges as a whole may find it difficult to confront the sometimes subtle barriers to their participation in these activities created by their status as outsiders or newcomers. Barriers to advancement for women in the higher echelons of academe are not necessarily the result of overt gender discrimination on the part of those who lead institutions or departments, although such problems still do exist. Rather, women as scholars and comparatively new members of the academic profession, beginning in graduate school, sometimes face what seems to be an almost overwhelming lack of interest in their progress from a system that has been dominated culturally and socially by, for the most part, white men of economic and social privilege. As noted by Fox (1995), women have limited interaction with and influence in faculty activities not just as a result of overt discrimination but also as a product of the systemic dominance and control of the academic organizations and culture by men.

Like the highly prestigious fields of law and medicine, the world of academe is, in many respects, a man's world controlled by the traditions, language, and social mores of men who have grown up together as both competitors and teammates. The high percentage of men in leadership positions illustrates this point. The Chronicle of Higher Education (1998, p. 30) reports that in 1995, 83.5% of college presidents and 82% of all full professors were men. A woman's lack of interaction with peers and with the academic department or the institution becomes a serious problem as she attempts to negotiate her way through increasing responsibilities as a more senior faculty member and accomplish the research and publication of scholarly work (and obtain the funding necessary for that work) on the road to promotions and academic tenure (Fox, 1995).

Viewing the results of such exclusion (albeit, for the most part, unintentional) on a systemic level reveals a portrait of a higher education system with a large concentration of women academics in the teaching or non-tenure-track faculties of large state universities, and as part-time or contract lecturers, and an even larger number of women faculty members in community colleges (Cooper, 1992; Johnsrud, 1995; Townsend, 1995; Twombly, 1993). Despite the apparently significant systemic effects of the difficulties and barriers women face during the academic socialization process as graduate students and new faculty members, very little research or inquiry into this area has been conducted. Rather, past and present research on women in the academy, both as students and faculty members, has tended to focus on the status of women as outsiders or newcomers in the different types of institutions separately, and how each of these institutions can make adjustments internally to improve that status. In other words, much of the literature, even that of a feminist bent, appears to be focused on finding new institutional approaches and programs to enable women to compensate in some way for their differences (in a variety of measures) from their male counterparts in the academy (Twombly, 1993).

The literature is further divided between four-year colleges and universities and two-year colleges, even for the baccalaureate preparatory programs that are directly connected to the four-year college system ineach state. Despite the division of the literature into two separate "disciplines" of two-year community colleges versus four-year colleges and universities, the socialization process for graduate students and new faculty members is a crucial common denominator for successful faculty development at all institutions. The literature regarding four-year institutions and women faculty members reveals that women are not advancing up the career ladder in the academy in proportion to the numbers of women obtaining graduate degrees and new teaching positions (West, 1995). As for the community colleges, the literature reveals that although more women serve as faculty members of some sort within the institutions, they are still not advancing to leadership positions and senior faculty positions in proportion to their numbers (Townsend, 1995).

A Call for Further Research

Given that women make up such a large percentage of the community college faculty, research into their experiences and the institutional realities they must face is particularly appropriate--and may help in understanding why such an active and essential component of the system is statistically over-represented in the lower echelons of the community college career ladder. Researchers should design studies to explore the organizational structures and the formal and informal social, cultural, and political experiences in the lives of women in the academic profession as they advance up the career ladder. Beginning with senior students in graduate school programs, researchers should conduct in-depth interviews with women, survey them, and observe them at different career levels at all types of universities and colleges, as they attempt to participate in scholarship, research, teaching, and other aspects of professional development and socialization in the academic department.

As Fox (1995) and Tierney and Bensimon (1996) have noted, the academic profession is dominated by men at every level, organizationally in terms of structure and socially in terms of the formal and informal activities in which an active aspiring scholar on any campus must participate. By studying the daily and yearly experiences of women at various levels in the academic career path (as graduate students, beginning faculty members, mid-range faculty members, tenured faculty members and department leaders), more information could be gathered to determine if a common set of patterns for the entire higher education system exists in terms of women and their participation in the various types of institutions.

Different types of academic disciplines should be included in the research, to give a wider variety of results and perhaps to document the existence of obstructing patterns, both formal and informal, in the career socialization process across academic disciplines. Beginning in graduate school programs, women can face a variety of formal and informal obstacles to success in their studies and careers as scholars and teachers. This may take the form of lack of interest in their progress and thus lack of mentorship and guidance from faculty, the absence of women in positions of power to serve as role models, and lack of funding and other support from the department and the institution (Tierney & Bensimon, 1996).

Researching the experiences of women who are beginning faculty members should focus on the details of their graduate school experiences and their job searches before and after receiving their degrees, as well as their experiences during their first year on the job, in terms of acclimating to department politics, campus politics, and the organizational culture that will shape their lives as professors at these institutions. In other words, researchers should not limit their focus to women's teaching loads and duties. They should explore women's personal experiences and daily interaction with peers, senior faculty, academic deans, divisions, and the institution as a whole. By asking women to describe their activities during a particular day, week, or month during the year, and their feelings associated with their experiences with their colleagues and the institution, researchers may be able to pinpoint common negative experiences and problems, whether they be institutional problems preventing socialization or common adjustment problems women experience as a group in the competitive world of academe.

Exploring the professional histories and experiences of several groups of women involved in the academic enterprise from start to finish may help to reveal patterns of behavior or organizational and social barriers that are blocking women from reaching the top faculty positions. Identifying common patterns of obstacles and barriers may provide ideas for investigating solutions to the organizational problems and societal mores that may prevent talented women from achieving recognition for their scholarship and service to their departments and institutions of all types. The need for research that spans institutional types is critical; important issues faced by women during their graduate training may underlie the career decision-process, and, in some cases, may influence women to pursue less ambitious career paths. In discussing women faculty at community colleges, the interconnections with the experiences of women graduate students and women faculty at four-year institutions must not be overlooked.

References

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Clark, B. (1987). The academic life: Small worlds, different worlds. Princeton, NJ: The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Cohen, A. M., & Brawer, F.B. (1996). The American community college (3rd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey Bass.

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Fox, M. F. (1995). Women and higher education: Gender differences in the status of students and scholars. In J. Freeman (Ed.), Women: A feminist perspective (5th ed.) (pp. 220-237). Mountain View, California: MayField Publishing.

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Tierney, W. G., & Bensimon, E. M. (1996). Promotion and tenure: community and socialization in academe. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Tierney, W. G. (1997, January/February). Organizational socialization in higher education. Journal of Higher Education, 68(1), 1-16.

Townsend, B. K. (1995). Women community college faculty: On the margins or in the mainstream? In B. K. Townsend (Ed.), Gender and power in the community college (pp. 39-46). New Directions for Community Colleges, No. 89. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Twombly, S. B. (1993, March/April). What we know about women in community colleges: An examination of the literature using feminist phase theory. Journal of Higher Education, 64(2), 186-210.

West, M. S. (1995). Women faculty: Frozen in time. Academe, 18(4), 26-29.

Sandra L. Clark is an attorney-at-law and a doctoral student at the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Berkeley.