clock £ind the tenure clock tend to tick simultaneously." Some faculty 

 members told us that they felt they had to put off having children until 

 they achieved tenure or entirely give up the goal of having children, 

 choices that men faculty do not necessarily have to make. Others we 

 spoke with commented that they observed the long hoiu-s and difficult 

 work of professors at research universities in the sciences and felt they 

 could not perfomi well while also devoting time to family responsibilities. 



In addition, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) found that 

 men and women faculty also worked in different types of institutions. 

 Among full-time faculty, women were more Ukely than men to work in 

 2-year mstitutions (33 percent versus 23 percent), while men were more 

 likely than women to work in research universities (20 percent versus 

 14 percent)." Women PhD students we interviewed revealed that very few 

 would seek tenure track positions at research institutions. Most said that 

 they would rather become faculty at small colleges or scientists at a 

 laboratory where they thought work pressures would be less intense and 

 they could maintain a more healthy balance between work and family life. 



Women May Also Face 

 Practices That May Affect 

 Their Participation 



Studies have also aigued that the variability in men and women's 

 participation in the sciences may result from discrimination in the 

 workplace or subtler discrimination about what types of career or job 

 choices women can make. NCES recently reported that preparation is not 

 the sole factor leading to women's low participation in science 

 occupations but that workplace discrimination is a consistent barrier to 

 women in the sciences. In addition, when studying women science faculty 

 issues at MIT, researchers found that, after tenure, many senior women 

 faculty began to feel "marginalized. '"' These faculty members reported that 

 they sensed they may not have been treated equally with their men 

 colleagues. During our site visits, some women faculty and students told 

 us that the climate in some academic departments was changing for the 

 better over time, as older men faculty, who were unused to working with 



Most commonly, tenm'e decisions are made several years after appointment as assistant 

 professor. In general, Lf an assistant professor does not get tenure, the professor must seek 

 employment elsewhere. To achieve tenure in the sciences, high productivity in research 

 and publication is required, time-consuming demands that many academics feel are 

 incompatible with family formation and child-rearing. 



'NCES 2002-173. 



'Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1999. 



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GAO-04-639 Gender Issues 



