Racial Breakdown of Full-Time Women Faculty in the U.S.

Data from the U.S. Department of Education shows that in 2009 there were 313,156 women holding full-time faculty positions at degree granting institutions in the United States. Women made up about 43 percent of all full-time faculty.

If we break down women faculty by race we find that whites are 75.5 percent of all women faculty. African Americans make up 6.9 percent of women full-time faculty members. For men, whites are 75.6 percent of all full-time faculty and African Americans are 4.3 percent of the total for men.

Faculty of Asian descent made up 7.2 percent of all women holding full-time jobs. For men, Asians held 9 percent of all positions.

For Hispanics, women held 4.2 percent of all full-time positions while Hispanic men were 3.6 percent of all males holding full-time faculty jobs.

Filed Under: FacultyGender GapResearch/Study

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  1. Phoebe Leboy says:

    We would expect there to be more females than males among under-represented minority faculty simply because women earn more of the doctorates awarded to URM. But these data suggest there are a lot more under-represented minority women among full time faculty than most of us are seeing on university campuses. Does it include nursing faculty? Community college faculty?

  2. Curt Rice says:

    It would be interesting to know what “full time” means here. Does it include adjuncts, people w multiple part time positions, which ranks, etc? Women don’t make it to the top in the same numbers as men, so there’s surely much more of interest lurking here. If you’re interested in reading a brief description of what we’re trying to do about this at the world’s northernmost university, see:
    The promotion project: Getting more women professors: http://t.co/eSpEW6n

    And on the skewed distribution of women, see:
    Centers of Excellence: Where are the women?: http://t.co/TVDF1yf

  3. Ellie L. says:

    Would the “Asian” category be international professors from Asia or Asian Americans?

  4. Avery says:

    This does not surprise me as whites are typically in the economic position to spend the time it takes to acquire terminal degrees to then assume a position that does not pay very well in light of all the schooling required. Academia has typically been a place for economically priviledged folks and people from minority groups have not been pushed to obtain doctorates in order to acquire faculty positions (this is slowly changing). This study simply expresses the economic and educational disparities that continue to exist between whites and minority groups.

  5. Hazel M. McFerson says:

    Of the number of African American female faculty, how many are full professors? Associates? Assistant? Instructor? Adjunct?

  6. Dr. Francisca James Hernandez says:

    Would you have a link for a breakdown of Hispanic/Latina (US American) and Native American faculty according to rank similar to the one you provided for African American women? Thank you.

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