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January 23, 2003

Faculty Senate: Working For Equity


In the early seventies, the UW Faculty Senate began to formally examine the issues that particularly affect faculty women. Our committee’s charge is stated below (from the Faculty Senate Web site)

“The Senate approved formation of a Special Committee on Faculty Women, whose mandate is to review the status of faculty women, to propose measures to correct inequities, and to aid in the implementation of solutions to those inequities” (May 11 & 18, 1972, Faculty Senate minutes).

We work directly with the Faculty Council on Faculty Affairs to study these issues or develop legislation. Last year our efforts resulted in passing legislation that improved the working situation for lecturers. That legislation added another title, Principal Lecturer, to the opportunities open to lecturers, and offered further clarification regarding lecturers’ contract durations, eligibility for teaching awards and other career opportunities.

One focus this year is to examine the increasing numbers of lecturers, a national trend, and examine the equity issues for part-time lecturers. Details can be examined at: http://www.washington.edu/faculty/facsenate/senate/legislation/classa/lecturer.htm.

For perspective, here are some data from the UW Workforce Profile as of October 2001. The percentage of the “ladder” faculty (including without tenure ranks) that are women is 30 percent of the total number, 2,948. When compared to the “non-ladder” faculty — which includes full and part-time lecturers — the UW workforce profile lists 58 percent of the total number of 782. Thus inequities that affect lecturers disproportionately affect women. The fraction of ladder faculty who are women varies by unit, with lows of 14 percent in the College of Engineering, to a high of 65 percent in the School of Social Work (excluding the School of Nursing). (UW Workforce Profile: http://www.washington.edu/admin/eoo ).

We have very effective partnerships with other groups on campus. For example, the SCFW partners with the President’s Advisory Committee on Women (PACW), in pressing the need for more childcare opportunities near or on the UW campus. This is of interest to staff, students, as well as faculty women and men.

Recently the UW was awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) ADVANCE grant. This program seeks to increase the participation of women in the science, engineering, and mathematics workforce through the increased representation and advancement of women in those academic fields (http://www.engr.washington.edu/advance/).

This summer the Chair of SCFW and Director of Advance, Eve Riskin, worked together with others to obtain a Sloan Foundation grant, beginning in 2003. This grant will address practical implementation of the progressive policies at the UW regarding part-time faculty careers for those faculty facing childcare and eldercare responsibilities. A year-long focus and partnership between SCFW and PACW is a series of workshops on Mentoring and Negotiation.

An ongoing important activity is to keep faculty informed about issues of interest to women and educators in general. An electronic mailing list, facultyw@u.washington.edu, is a monitored list to which anyone can subscribe and contribute. We receive announcements and news items of interest, and pass on pertinent ones to all who have wished to be on the mailing list.

Additionally, on our Web site (http://www.washington.edu/faculty/facsenate/councils/scfw/scfw.html), we have links to resources, some of which are listed below:


  • Faculty Mentors (listed by department and school);
  • UW Climate and Community Project of College of Arts and Sciences;
  • Women in Science and Engineering — includes bibliography;
  • A speech given at NSF for female science majors considering graduate school;
  • An excellent salary negotiation site;
  • A recently implemented “Librarian Personnel Code” that includes a mentoring package;
  • The MIT Report on Faculty Women in Science: http://web.mit.edu/fnl/women/women.pdf;
  • Women in Academia: http://www.geocities.com/~cmsunday/academia.html;
  • Shaping a National Agenda for Women in Higher Education Conference March 27–29, 2000;
  • Equal Employment Office: www.washington.edu/admin/eoo;
  • Professionals in Science and Technology 1998 Salary and Employment; and
  • Parenting and Eldercare resources at the UW.


This is one of a series of columns detailing the work of the Faculty Senate’s councils and committees. Barbara Krieger-Brockett is the chair of the Special Committee on Faculty Women.