Women academics sometimes face unique challenges to their entry and advancement in the academic profession, among them potential inequities in salary and promotion rates, sexual harassment, and discriminatory treatment.
The AAUP has long focused on issues of concern to female faculty members. Primarily through the Committee on Women in the Academic Profession and Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure, the AAUP has developed and issued policy statements, guidelines, workshops, and resources on equity in pay for female faculty, work/family, affirmative action, sexual harassment, and Title IX.
Resources on Women in Higher Education
Affirmative Action
Family and Work
Gender Equity
Sexual Harassment and Sexual Violence on Campus
AAUP Policy Statements and Analysis
Affirmative Action Plans: Recommended Procedures for Increasing the Number of Minority Persons and Women on College and University Faculties. 1983
On Discrimination. 1976
Does Diversity Make a Difference? Three Research Studies on Diversity in College Classrooms Executive Summary. (.pdf) 2000. AAUP and American Council on Education.
Other Resources
The American Association of University Women, Tenure Denied: Cases of Sex Discrimination in Academia. 2004
AAUP Policy Statements
Statement of Principles on Family Responsibilities and Academic Work. 2001.
The Family and Medical Leave Act Handbook. 2013. By Saranna R. Thornton and Kathi S. Westcott.
Pregnancy in the Academy Handbook. 2006. By Saranna R. Thornton.
Other AAUP Resources
Working Mothers and Gender Discrimination. The Chronicle of Higher Education, May 27, 2005. By Donna Euben.
Statement of Principles on Family Responsibilities and Academic Work. 2001.
Persistent Inequity: Gender and Academic Employment. (.pdf) By John W. Curtis, Director of Research and Public Policy. Prepared for “New Voices in Pay Equity” An Event for Equal Pay Day, April 11, 2011.
AAUP Faculty Gender Equity Indicators 2006. Prepared by Martha S. West, consultant to AAUP’s Committee on Women in the Academic Profession, and John W. Curtis, AAUP Director of Research. This report provides data on four measures of gender equity for faculty at over 1, 400 colleges and universities across the country.