Modern Language Association and Promotion

In April of this year, MLA, or the Modern Language Association, published a study on its website that suggests that it takes female associate professors (and MLA members) longer to be promoted to full professorship when compared to their male counterparts. This report notes that "On average, it takes women from 1 to 3.5 years longer than men to attain the rank of professor, depending on the type of institution in which they are employed and regardless of whether they are single, married or divorced or have children." This study also reports other findings that support previous research. It notes that women spend more time "grading or commenting on student work" and "less time on research and writing" than men. Female professors who have children also spend more time at home with children than male faculty with children. One very interesting finding discussed in this report is the fact that married women with children achieve promotion "in slightly less time (8.2 years) than all married women on average (8.8 years) [...] [and] within the subset of married faculty members with no dependent children, women report the longest time to promotion--9.4 years--while men report 7.0 years." It really surprises me that married women with children are promoted in less time than married women without children. Becky Ropers-Huilman in Gendered Futures reports similar findings.

Regardless of the difference between children or no children, it still takes women longer to be promoted than men. It's possible that the women who have children had the tenure clock temporarily stopped when they chose to have children. This would make me think that women with no children should take about the same time to be promoted as women who have their tenure clocks stopped or delayed, but as this report shows is not the case. What is it about children that accelerates the promotion process? Is it because women are forced to make their time at work more productive because they know they won't be able to be productive at home once they are there? I know this is how I work. I personally think routine, pressure, and social expectations (of one's colleagues) play important parts in an academic woman's professional life, especially when she has taken time off to have children. It's possible that she feels slightly professionally selfish and when she returns to work compensates for this loss of time.

It is important to note that this study is nationally representative and includes a sample size of over a thousand participants. Please feel free to examine the study's entire findings.