Gender gap in faculty promotion

Area of Science:

• Social Sciences
• Higher Education Studies
• Gender Studies

Background:

• Faculty promotion is crucial for academic career progression.
• Existing research suggests potential gender disparities in academic advancement.
• Quantifying these gaps requires robust measures of academic productivity and quality.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the gender gap in faculty promotion at the University of Geneva.
• To develop and apply a novel, gender-neutral measure of research quality.
• To determine if disparities in promotion exist after controlling for research quality, discipline, and PhD origin.

Main Methods:

• Development of a gender-neutral research quality metric.
• Statistical analysis of promotion data for faculty at the University of Geneva.
• Controlling for variables including research quality, academic discipline, and PhD-granting institution.

Main Results:

• Women are 11% less likely to be promoted than men, controlling for key factors.
• The gender promotion gap is nearly three times larger for promotion from assistant to associate professor.
• An equivalent increase in research quality yields a smaller increase in promotion probability for women compared to men.

Conclusions:

• A significant gender gap in faculty promotion exists at the University of Geneva.
• The findings suggest that the promotion process may disproportionately disadvantage women, particularly at junior levels.
• The differential impact of research quality on promotion likelihood indicates potential biases in the evaluation system.