I am a student at DePaul University and I am very proud to have Dr. Melissa Bradshaw as a professor this year. I am in a Women's Studies Course where twice a week I get to engage in an important ongoing feminist dialogue about race, class, gender, and all of the issues women face today. When I first heard about Professor Bradshaw's tenure denial I was in shock. Then I began reading and hearing more about it, and began to notice the reasoning behind this decision. The full article from today's Chicago Tribune can be found here which describes what has been going on with Dr. Bradshaw's case as well as the other female professors who have been denied tenure. They are all bringing this to court and accusing DePaul University of gender discrimination. This is a very serious accusation and I hope you all read this article and begin a dialogue about this. Do your universities have similar cases? Are you a female professor who has felt gender discrimination at your university? I would love to hear more stories and start a conversation. I am hoping to go to law school after I get my BA and work with brave women who are fighting for what is theirs.
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How is asking a female GWS professor how many men take her courses any more problematic then asking a male engineering professor how many women take his courses?
It's not more problematic. The thing is, that those questions are not asked of male engineer professors.
I highly doubt that actually, I'd imagine that in the highly competitive situation for tenure I would be surprised if it didn't come up as a matter of course if not in specific reference to what the staff members have done to specifically help university initiatives on the subject. The article seems to merely rely on the assumption that they would not, not upon evidence that they did not.
Before giving out tenure I'd say it would be highly valuable for a university to make sure that their professors align with the university's long term goals. If they want more diversity in the classroom (which is a fairly boilerplate goal) then they should ask their professors these types of questions.
What's the competition? They got tenure from their department and the supervising board didn't have to reject any of them. This school doesn't offer engineering majors anyway.
Furthermore, if an engineering professor is published or brings in research money do you really think the department would take it if the some board asked about women in his class? Especially, if there are just aren't that many in the major anyway.
Yes actually I think they would. In fact I think before giving him tenure I'd think they'd even attempt to screen against future harassment lawsuits because it would be made more difficult by the grant of tenure.
If they didn't this website would be screaming about how they weren't demanding professors encourage women in the hard sciences. Why should it be any different when the gender ratios go the other way?
Further tenure usually involves a pay raise which suggests a limit on resources, and its grant of lifetime work means that the person is not only competing with other professors who are in the tenure process now but professors who might seek tenure a few years from now, who might not even be able to be considered if they have too many tenured professors.
They can't actually grant everyone tenure even if they have no specific limit on the number of tenured positions to give out.
Well you certainly think many things. I congratulate you on your strong sense of intuition. Now do you have any facts or examples to back up your claims? I've never heard of an engineering professor being asked about the gender ratio in their class. If they were they would just cite the demographics of the major. Only chemical engineering majors take the 300 and 400 level chemical engineering courses etc.
And these people have already been granted tenure by their department who would feel this squeeze of the pay raise the most. It's sort of understood that a professor is seeking tenure and somethings up if they don't get it.
My creative writing mentor was denied tenure, but his denial stemmed from the fact that he was unwilling to "play the game". He was an outspoken critic of English department policy, which tended to favor traditional southern authors and poets at the expense of more qualified and frankly more skilled faculty who might or might not write stories about coal mining or hunting dogs.
Sadly, despite fighting the decision, he was still denied tenure. The lesson in this is not to give in and sacrifice your convictions to keep a job but to not make enemies unless one has to and to not give your enemies any ammunition in the process.