More Service or More Advancement: Institutional Barriers to Academic Success for Women and Women of Color Faculty at a Large Public Comprehensive Minority-Serving State University

Racialized and gendered imbalances impact tenure-track faculty service workload and ultimately, career advancement for women faculty, especially women of color faculty. This article reports on a 3-year study examining the barriers to career advancement for women/women of color tenure-line Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) faculty at a large public comprehensive minority-serving university. We aimed to understand institutional policies and practices, and compared the perceptions and actions of 3 constituent groups: Deans, STEM faculty, and members of the university tenure and promotion committee. Specifically, we examined tenured and tenure-track STEM faculty perceptions and experiences with institutional service in an effort to understand how these align or diverge among gendered and racial groups and among 3 constituent groups of institutional actors to uncover tensions that arise with formal and informal service policies and activities. Findings are based on a faculty survey conducted to gather descriptive information about the role of service in tenure-line STEM faculty careers and faculty perceptions of their work-load and value of these activities, in-depth interviews with university deans and members of the University Tenure & Promotion Committee (UTPC), and focus groups with STEM tenure-line women faculty. We found 3 institutional and service-related barriers to career advancement: (a) inequitable distribution of service with no reward; (b) devaluing of service by the university; and (c) lack of clarity and consistency about the role of service in the retention, tenure, and promotion (RTP) processes. Further, embedded in these barriers were experiences of gendered and racist stereotypes and inequities shaping and intersecting with the identified barriers. The study suggests institutional changes to make high impact service activities more visible, equitably distributed, and valued in the tenure and promotion process at this large public, comprehensive minority-serving institution.

Automated summary

This article reports on a 3-year study examining the barriers to career advancement for women/women of color STEM faculty at a large public comprehensive minority-serving university. The study identifies three institutional and service-related barriers, including inequitable distribution of service, devaluing of service by the university, and lack of clarity and consistency about the role of service in the RTP processes. These barriers were found to intersect with gendered and racial stereotypes and inequities in shaping career advancement for women of color.