The University Council on Women will be monitoring the gender-ratio gap between full-time men and women faculty members through the LSU System’s restructuring, according to Director of the Women’s Center and member of the University Council on Women Summer Steib.
From fall 1999 to fall 2012, there has only been a 5 percent increase — from 30 to 35 percent — in the number of instructional full-time female faculty employed by the University, while the number of instructional full-time male faculty has consistently remained greater than 65 percent.
In fall 2008, the University saw its largest number of full-time women faculty at 456 out of 1,324 total full-time faculty, or 34.4 percent. It was not until fall 2012 that the percentage of full-time women faculty reached more than 35 percent in more than a decade. But the surge may be credited to a dip in total faculty in fall 2011, when it went below 1,200 for the first time since 1999.
“We monitor university realignment to make sure there is equity in the process,” Steib said. “We look at the positive and negative impacts on women with the restructure.”
One such action to increase and retain women faculty to the University is through the University Council on Women, made up of faculty and staff. According to Steib, UCW’s main goal is to investigate issues involving women, faculty, staff and students.
The UCW also looks at issues involving campus safety and the health and wellness of faculty and staff.
According to Kristie Galy, chair of the University Council on Women, the policies are not just for the betterment of women, but “for a better campus community all around.”
As one of the four pillars of the University’s Flagship Agenda, diversity is meant to strengthen the intellectual environment of the University community by broadening cultural diversity, which includes increasing diversity among faculty, staff and students.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 58 percent of high school teachers are women. Steib credits that dynamic of a larger women ratio in K-12 education as being the nurturing side of education.
“It contributes to the stereotype that women nurture and are caregivers,” Steib said. “But it takes a lot of resources to become a professor.”
Despite there being a large ratio difference of full-time women faculty to full-time men at the University, to some students, having either male or female professors makes no difference.
“It doesn’t make a difference to me, as long as their teaching is adequate,” said international studies sophomore Justin Blanchard.
The teaching styles between male and female professors are different and may vary depending on the gender of the student on a one-on-one basis, Blanchard said.
International studies senior Audrey Robert also said the gender of the professor makes no difference as long as she receives adequate instruction. However, Robert said female professors seem less intimidating and more approachable.
There is a large gap between the number of women and men in STEM fields, which comprise science, technology, engineering and mathematics. One goal of the Women’s Center on campus, also set up through the Flagship Agenda, is to look at the gap of women in STEM and work with STEM organizations on campus to ensure the recruitment and retention of women to these fields in the academic setting, Steib said.
