Tracy Isaacs feels pulled in two directions.
The Women’s Studies and Feminist Research chair supports of The University of Western Ontario’s desire to prioritize research areas of widespread public appeal in which Western demonstrates excellence. But she remains cognizant of how this kind of focus compromises the goals of gender equity.
Tracy Isaacs
Isaacs isn’t alone in her concern as the question has been raised across campus, most recently at last month’s Western’s Caucus on Women’s Issues.
In Western’s 2008-2011 strategic research plan, 10 signature areas are outlined: business; environmental sustainability/green energy; health education; imaging; literature and cultural theory; materials and biomaterials; music; neuroscience/brain and mind; philosophy of science; and wind engineering and natural disaster mitigation.
The problem is, as Isaacs and others point out, women are underrepresented in at least seven of those areas. “If Western is truly committed to improving its scorecard on gender equity, then we need to think carefully about how to appreciate and support areas in which there are deeper pools of excellent female candidates from which to draw,” Isaacs says.
As a research-intensive university, Western plans to lend these areas an enhanced profile in terms of publicity, fundraising efforts and presentation of Western to the world. Isaacs expresses concerns about the potential fallout of giving these areas celebrity status.
“I worry that it is difficult to celebrate signature areas without making people working in other areas feel that the institution does not value their research contributions,” she says, noting this may affect faculty retention. “My research does not fit into any of the signature areas and I have no plans to make it fit into them.”
Western needs to make a more serious effort to recruit women faculty members into those areas where women are underrepresented, adds Isaacs, noting celebrating signature areas may also make faculty members working in other areas feel alienated.
“I don’t think I’m alone in thinking that there is more interest in my work from audiences outside of Western than there is from within,” she adds.
For the past three years, Western has had just over 1,080 probationary and tenured faculty members, of which more than 320 are women—or approximately 30 per cent. While male faculty members dominate the overall numbers across campus, there are two faculties where women outnumber their male counterparts – Information and Media Studies (59.5 per cent) and Health Sciences (59.3 per cent).
According to Western’s data on faculty recruitment and retention (as of May), women are also highly represented in the faculties of Arts and Humanities, Education, Social Science and the Don Wright Faculty of Music. Faculties where women hold the lowest percentage of positions include Engineering (11.8 per cent), Science (19.1 per cent) and Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry (19.5 per cent).
Western is about two per cent below the G13 average (which includes Western among other leading research-intensive universities in Canada) for number of female faculty members, and this shortfall is higher among the senior ranks, says Janice Deakin, provost and vice-president academic.
In 2008, Statistics Canada’s University and College Academic Staff System survey (page 78) reported among the G13 universities, Dalhousie University had the highest percentage of women faculty appointments (39.1 per cent). Waterloo reported the lowest number (25 per cent), followed by McGill University (29.9 per cent).
Regna Darnell
Like Isaacs, Regna Darnell, a Distinguished University Professor, recipient of the Hellmuth Prize and Royal Society of Canada fellow, doesn’t feel her work has been celebrated internally to the extent it has been received from outside Western.
“I have never had the feeling that Western in general embraces my research though the institution certainly and properly takes credit for its successes,” says the anthropology and First Nations studies professor. “My collaborations are with people in other departments or faculties in particular projects, or with colleagues elsewhere. Sometimes I’m lonely.”
While she understands – and accepts – the university’s need for clearly defining areas of excellence as a way of ‘sticking out in the crowd’ and developing sightlines for focusing fundraising and investment strategies, Darnell doesn’t want the university to overlook research opportunities for individual scholarship and small group collaborations.
She also encourages the university to take a closer look at how faculty members fit into the areas of excellence.
For example, Darnell considers herself to be studying philosophy of science as someone who examines the history of anthropology and related disciplines, but she doesn’t feel recognized as a colleague of the Department of Philosophy. Also, she is involved in cultural theory, and the ecosystem health program through a cross-appointment with the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry – checking off several boxes in the areas of research excellence.
“I don’t think it’s an accident that men dominate the academy and that fields dominated by men have higher prestige,” Darnell says. “There are some women in all disciplines now, but that does not mean that opportunities are equal or that those women have been welcomed.”
Western recently commissioned an Employment Systems Review (ESR) to identify employment barriers for members of four designated groups, women, Aboriginal persons, persons with disabilities and members of visible minorities.
As pointed out in the ESR, the university’s collegial process of engaging faculty from across campus to establish the university’s academic priorities might have its pitfalls.
With fewer women at the top making decisions about the university’s priority areas, it’s not surprising concerns about gender bias have reared their head, particularly in how the university determines areas of excellence.
Janice Deakin
“Since women represent slightly less than one-third of all faculty, and even less among senior faculty, the priority areas in our Academic Plans can tend to be male dominated, and reflect research fields and perspectives that may be of less interest to women faculty,” Deakin says. “Clearly, we need to be aware of the possibility for unconscious bias when renewing Academic Plans as well as the University’s Strategic Research Plan and Western’s overall Strategic Plan.”
Deakin, who took over as provost in August, is the first female in Western’s history to hold this senior post. Of the 12 faculties and schools at Western, four women are in the role of dean or vice-provost.
But Western is not alone in facing concerns about gender equity in research areas of excellence.
The Canadian government’s Science and Technology strategy prioritizes investments in these areas. While these fields of study are not exclusive, many of them are male-dominated. The issues are also systemic; it echoes which areas of knowledge are perceived as valuable in society and it fails to recognize how these disciplines are gendered.
The recently awarded Canada Excellence Research Chairs program underscored the issue of gender equity in research, as no chair positions were awarded to a woman.
“Those kinds of things send a message about who counts and what counts in academia,” says Rebecca Coulter, Faculty of Education professor.
“By feeling forced to follow the dollars, without any pushback … we again distort the opportunities for female scholars in those areas. At the same time we have lots of examples of the ways in which people can work around targeted funding areas to be more inclusive of the full range of what a university offers in terms of thinking critically about society,” Coulter says.
All research in science, technology or business fields, for example, have social implications, notes Coulter, explaining this is where such strategic areas can be more inclusive of other faculty members’ areas of study.
One concern voiced by female faculty members is that by celebrating signature areas, those researchers who do not fall under these categories will feel their work devalued. Some male faculty members are also marginalized by these trends, but women are disproportionately disadvantaged.
“We are a research-intensive university, but we are also a university that works in a lot of different areas and we need to think more carefully about involving all elements of the university in the strategic directions we take,” says Coulter. “We need to go in with our eyes open about the gendered impact of these strategies and to think about them.”
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Like Western, other Canadian universities are trying to recruit more women and promote all areas of research.
For example, at the University of Waterloo (one of the G13), Western President Amit Chakma’s previous institution, the number of female faculty members made up 23 per cent of the overall total in 2009. To boost the number of women faculty, all advertisements and faculty searches at Waterloo specifically encourage members of visible minorities, native peoples and persons with disabilities to apply, says Geoff McBoyle, vice-president academic and provost.
Among the contributing factors to the low number of women professors is the fact Waterloo has a higher number of faculty in mathematics, engineering and science – areas with a smaller applicant pool of eligible female hires. But, each decade Waterloo establishes a new target for increasing the number of women faculty members and has surpassed its target for 2010.
McBoyle also notes gender is not a factor in its promotion of research excellence. “(University of Waterloo) celebrates all areas of research in which it excels, irrespective of the representation of a specific gender,” he says.
Aware of its shortfall of female representation, Western’s attempts to recruit more women faculty in recent years are showing success as that the proportion of women among assistant professors equals the G13 average.
Not all 10 signature areas in Western’s Strategic Research Plan are science and technology based, nor are they all male-dominated, Deakin notes. Western has made it a priority to promote opportunities for recruitment of women into faculty positions and Canada Research Chairs in all areas of strategic priority, she says.
The results of the ESR are also not getting shelved. The President’s Standing Committee on Employment Equity is currently formulating the university’s response to the findings and recommendations.
“As provost, it is my role to be vigilant on all equity matters with a view to ensuring our policies and actions are consistent with our multiple goals on this complex file,” Deakin explains. “I have every confidence that the issue of equity on campus is something my male colleagues in senior positions take seriously, and I know they believe that the weight of promoting equity and the interests of women faculty must be carried equally and not left solely upon the shoulders of the women in leadership roles.”
Some faculties, such as Science, have taken the matter into their own hands.
In January 2009, the Faculty of Science created the position of Diversity and Outreach assistant dean to which professor Carol Jones was appointed.
“This position was created to recognize and enhance the diversity of the faculty, staff and students, and foster a culture of inclusion, equity and respect in which diversity can thrive,” says David Wardlaw, Science dean, noting female scholars contribute significantly across Science’s five research themes.
“With the help of the departmental outreach committees and other interested groups, Dr. Jones has been working to improve the extent and effectiveness of outreach activities in the Faculty of Science. We want to ensure that all outreach activities reflect a welcoming, diverse, tolerant Western community. In this way, outreach activities can enhance efforts related to diversity issues and raise the profile of Science at Western.”
The faculty currently has 27 externally funded, occupied research chairs (Canada Research Chairs and NSERC Industrial Research Chairs); 10 of the incumbents are women. Women are encouraged to take on leadership roles in the departments and faculty, and act as role models for the next generation of leaders, researchers and teachers, he says.
At the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Terri Paul, equity and professionalism associate dean, says it is important to recognize the contributions of women who have gravitated to areas such as family medicine, pediatrics, psychiatry and internal medicine, but also encourage women to enter the more male-dominated fields. Another issue is gaining recognition and awards for areas that have not traditionally been a priority at Western, but are areas in which women are excelling.
The need to increase the number of female faculty in engineering is an action item for all deans of Engineering and Applied Sciences in Canada, says Andrew Hrymak, Western’s Faculty of Engineering dean.
“Western, the percentage of female faculty is about the same as the provincial and national averages, but this is well below where we would like to be,” he says, noting Engineering is involved in several faculty searches and is targeting areas with a higher proportion of female doctoral students, such as biomedical engineering science and technology.
As well, NSERC recently announced a new competition for the NSERC Chairs for Women in Science and Engineering, for which Hrymak will work with colleagues to put in a competitive proposal.
“I am also interested in developing mentorship opportunities to provide support for women faculty who would like to lead larger research competition proposals for competitions in the Canadian Foundation for Innovation or Ontario Research Fund – Research Excellence,” he says.
“The number of female faculty in Engineering is very important and part of the broader issue of encouraging women to choose science and technology as career choices in undergraduate education, graduate studies and professional careers … There is a lot that has been done, but much more that we need to do.”
Rebecca Coulter
