8/ More than 10K faculty responded to our attrition survey, answering (1) did they feel pushed out or pulled towards better opportunities? and (2) were their pushes related to work, work-life balance, or workplace climate?
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9/ First, feeling “pushed out” increased with career age for everyone. But women (STEM & non-STEM) were more likely to feel pushed out & less likely to feel pulled towards better jobs, than men, at every career age – gender was the strongest predictor of feeling pushed vs pulled.
10/ Second, are faculty’s reasons for leaving gendered? Yes. Women former faculty most often cited climate-related reasons, while men cited professional reasons 📈📉 Women and men former faculty selected work-life balance reasons equally often.
11/ And current faculty report a very similar pattern: women cite climate reasons at much higher rates than men, and do so at all career ages. Work-life reasons are more common in the early career, and do show a gendered effect but not as large as we see for climate.
12/ To sum up:
- Women faculty universally leave academia at higher rates than men
- Effect is stronger for tenured women in non-STEM at lower-prestige schools
- BUT regardless of rates, women leave for different reasons - they feel pushed out, esp. by their workplace climates
13/ Our study is limited in several ways: our data don’t span the COVID pandemic, we study only tenured & tenure-track faculty, and our data don’t support strong intersectional analyses so the results mostly reflect the experiences of white women.
14/ Big takeaway: it’s a mistake to observe equal rates of attrition and believe gender equity has been achieved. Focus instead on the reasons for leaving, which vary by career age, field, and prestige. There’s a lot of work left to do, and climate deserves our attention 🎤
Wow, amazing work. This fits with my experience where I've had to fight against regular overloads, unpaid/off-contract work, maxing out teaching preps etc. Im at a teaching-focused school. And the dept climate gets worse when I fight for work-life balance.
Hi Katie. Such important work! I realize these data are perceptions of causes, but wondered if work-life reasons might be overestimated for men here. If I recall some marital relations & employment research correctly, men overestimate contributions & extent to which their companies support women.
Comments
- Women faculty universally leave academia at higher rates than men
- Effect is stronger for tenured women in non-STEM at lower-prestige schools
- BUT regardless of rates, women leave for different reasons - they feel pushed out, esp. by their workplace climates