Married Academic Women

The recession of the mid-1970's has severely affected the American economy. The impact is apparent not only among the economically marginal stratum of workers, but professional workers also are finding new problems in getting and keeping jobs. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, the job shortage in university teaching positions has been more severe for women than for men. [1] The United States Office of Education reports that women faculty have continued to lose ground to men both in salary and rank. [2] Economic recession has a special impact on married academic women who are seeking positions or advancement. These women may well encounter discrimination not only women but also persons who appear more secure economically than their counterparts-both female and male-who are single or heads of households. Discriminatory attitudes are reflected, for example, in the Carnegie Commission for Higher Education report which notes that as secondary earners in the family, academic women typically do not need to strive for salary increases vigorously men.[3] On a less formal level the same message came from a department chairman to a married woman on his faculty who had just been denied a promotion: Come on now, with you it's only a hobby.[4] Such perceptions about married women professors also are apparent in the results of a 1975 survey at a state university in the West regarding attitudes toward the hiring of qualified married women in periods of recession. The results of the survey will be presented in this paper. This paper also will assess the impact of discrimination against married academic women: its context, its possible causes, and its consequences for academic quality

Line (geometry · Sociology · Gender Diversity and Inequality · Gender Studies · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics · Higher Education Research Studies · Mathematics · Psychology

• The Invisible Woman

  Winona B Ackerman•The Journal of Higher Education•1976

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