Despite earning the majority of terminal degrees over the last 15 years, women are president at only 22% of the nation’s elite institutions. Of those, only 5% are women of color.
That's the findings from The Women’s Power Gap at Elite Universities: Scaling the Ivory Tower, a study by the Women’s Power Gap Initiative and the American Association of University Women.
Andrea Silbert, one of the lead authors of the study and president of the Eos Foundation.
“I think the thing that’s shocking is, we hear a lot in the diversity universe about pipelines not being available but, in terms of gender, there is a pipeline,” said Silbert.
The study’s results show men and women both seem able to traverse the academic career ladder from professor to academic dean and provost. Men hold roughly 60% of academic dean and provost positions, and women hold just under 40%. But the gender gap widens to 56 percentage points between men and women who go on to become presidents.
“[Those numbers] don’t belie a leaky pipeline,” said Silbert. “You have to deal with what’s going on at that last step.”
The study focused on the 130 institutions that qualify as “R1” research universities, as defined by the Carnegie Classification. R1 research institutions range from Ivy League to state flagships and educate roughly 4 million students yearly, or about 20% of the college-going population. Based on their research capacity, R1 institutions are also able to apply for billions of dollars in grants from the federal government.
