ANN ARBOR—Women at the University of Michigan continue to make progress in gainful employment, retention and enrollment, but the University still has more to accomplish to achieve gender equality, according to a report prepared for U-M President Mary Sue Coleman.

The new report, "Women at the University of Michigan," gives a statistical portrait of the status of U-M women faculty, staff and students on the Ann Arbor campus, tracks changes across time, and identifies areas where inequities exist. The report enables the University to step back and take a close look at progress—or lack thereof—in fully incorporating women into the fabric of University life, and assists with creating a roadmap to gender equity. The data was collected in 2001 and follows three earlier reports produced in 1992, 1993 and 1996.

Coleman will discuss the report, as well as a wide range of issues affecting women, during an open forum today (Oct. 2) in Hutchins Hall of the U-M Law School.

"I am optimistic about several of the results in this study," Coleman said. "Clearly, the University has made significant gains in the representation of women across many roles in University life, especially in leadership staff positions and among tenured faculty.

"But the report also illustrates where we have more work to do. We must pay special attention to the areas where our progress has been slow or stagnant, such as in the ranks of assistant professor and in the representation of women of color in staff and faculty roles."

Carol Hollenshead, director of Center for the Education of Women and initiator of the report, said "the report provides many indicators of progress toward achieving gender equity, but it also identifies areas where change has been hard to achieve. In the decentralized U-M environment, data from this report will serve as a valuable tool for individual schools and departments across campus, as well as for the University as a whole."

Highlights include: • At the very top levels of academic administration, women made significant progress. In 2001 women held 50 percent of executive officer positions and 47 percent of dean posts. Women account for 28 percent of department chairs, compared to 16 percent in 1995.

• Among professional and administrative staff, women made striking gains. The percentage of women at higher salary grades (grade16 and above) increased from 30 percent in 1995 to 41 percent in 2001.

• Women earned 51 percent of the bachelor’s degrees granted by the University in 2001, up from 48 percent in 1995. Also increased were the percentage earning master’s degrees (now 46 percent) and professional degrees (now 45 percent). Women earned 39 percent of doctorate degrees, up from 34 percent in 1995.

• The percentage of women holding tenured and tenure track faculty positions rose since 1995. Women make up 17 percent of all full professors, up from 12 percent in 1995, with women of color representing 2 percent. Women account for 34 percent of all associate professors, up from 26 percent in 1995, with women of color representing 7 percent.

Despite significant gains in some areas, the University can still make improvements, the study indicates. Examples include: • Women continue to make up about one third of the assistant professors (34 percent), a figure that has been virtually static for more than 20 years. Although the pool of women with doctorate degrees has increased dramatically in the last 30 years, the University’s percentage of women faculty continues to be at or below the 1979 national levels of doctorate degrees attainment in nearly all academic disciplines.

• Among staff, women are clustered at the lower ranges of compensation in most job families. The proportion of women of color continues to be highest in the service/maintenance jobs (26 percent) as opposed to 16 percent in the office job family and 12 percent in the professional/administrative ranks.

• Among non-tenure track faculty, women make up 57 percent of U-M’s lecturer positions. The number of lecturers grew by more than one-third between 1990 and 2001, and women accounted for 82 percent of that increase, meaning that in percentage terms, the largest increase in faculty women occurred off the tenure track.

The current report, like its three predecessors, was prepared under the auspices of the President’s Advisory Commission on Women’s Issues (PACWI) by the Center for the Education of Women, Human Resource Records and Information Services, and Office of Budget and Planning.

Since the late 1980s, PACWI and other U-M women’s groups have organized community forums as a means for U-M presidents to address women’s concerns.

Links: PACWI: http://www.umich.edu/~cew/PACWI.html Report: http://www.umich.edu/~hraa/womenatum