Western continues to move in the right direction in carrying out its commitment to employment equity in faculty hiring, Karen Campbell, Vice-Provost (Academic Planning, Policy and Faculty), told university Senate Friday. While numbers vary by discipline, overall, the university is seeing a steadily growing percentage of women in tenure and tenure-track positions.
“Western pays a lot of attention to employment equity. We do have strong provisions for equity and hiring in our collective agreement and the data supports that we’re achieving many of our goals,” Campbell said.
“We are making gains – and that’s a good thing.”
The overall percentage of tenured/probationary women faculty is about 35 per cent – a consistent year-over-year increase and a jump from the 21 per cent of 20 years ago.
But this percentage tells just part of the story, as it represents faculty at all career stages, some of whom were hired long ago, she said. The percentage of women among assistant professors is now 43.5 per cent; the percentage of women among new hires was 52.8 per cent in 2018.
The ratio of men-to-women among overall professorial ranks is similar to that of other U15 universities.
The report, Report to SCUP on Faculty Recruitment and Retention, presents raw data as an annual temperature check on appointments, resignations and retirements.
All probationary/tenured and limited-term faculty are hired with approval of the Appointments Committee, which ensures equitable processes are followed and the best candidates are hired, Campbell noted.
“We prioritize employment equity and we monitor that the process bears that out.”
(Some other indications of employment equity – numbers and percentages of Indigenous faculty, faculty with non-binary gender identity and people with disabilities, for example – aren’t reflected in this report and, because of privacy law, are not generally indicated in the human-resources database.)
Of limited-term appointments, 44.6 per cent are women and 55.4 per cent are men. Of the limited-term total, 57 per cent have doctorates (which is the minimum criteria for professor positions).
The data shows the majority of part-time faculty are employed for a short duration, often for one course in one year. Part-time faculty include postdoctoral and graduate students and professionals (dentists, lawyers, accountants), as well as people for whom part-time teaching is a major activity.
Rates of resignation are similar for men and women and resignation reasons, include family, salary levels, being recruited elsewhere and geography.
At Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, the number of full-time clinical (physician) faculty continues to increase and stands at 853, about 33 per cent of them women.