Tenure-track professorships are among the most coveted jobs in academia, but that's not stopping a growing number of women from turning them down.
At Harvard University, the percentage of women who accepted tenure-track positions during the 2005-06 academic year dropped drastically, according to a recently released Harvard report.
The situation at Penn, school administrators say, is better - or, at least, not as bad.
Though female professors at Penn rarely refuse tenure-track positions - a university's virtual guarantee of employment until retirement- the actual number of female tenured professors still lags behind the number of men.
And academics at both schools are asking how female faculty members can catch up to their male peers.
The Harvard report, released last month, is intended to "keep people updated about important school-wide issues," according to Lisa Martin, the Harvard professor who compiled the report.
"Harvard did not do a good job" recruiting tenure-track women last academic year compared to years past, Martin added.
Of those who accepted tenure-track positions at Harvard, 21 percent were women. This number pales in comparison with 40 percent the year before.
Martin said that only time will tell if this drop signifies a major trend or is just a "one-year blip."
But gender gap issues, especially among faculty, have been a long-standing concern at Penn.
In 2000, the Gender Equity Committee was formed to "review the status of women [faculty] at Penn," an executive summary states.
"We are way ahead of Harvard," said School of Arts and Sciences Dean Rebecca Bushnell.
In the School of Arts and Sciences 43.8 percent of tenure-track professors are women, and 24.3 percent of women have tenure.
Moreover, 15 of the 40 professors hired this year are women, and 12 of them are tenure-track. The other three were hired with tenure.
"Women are absolutely not hesitant to accept tenure," Bushnell said.
Women almost always accept tenure offers in SAS, and the same goes for the School of Engineering and Applied Science and the Nursing School, according to administrators.
But despite the high rate of accepting tenure, women are far the minority in some fields at Penn.
Women make up 10 percent of the SEAS faculty, officials said. Of those, less than half have tenure.
SEAS Dean Eduardo Glandt said that the school has been working to recruit more female professors.
He added that having a woman, Deputy Dean Susan Davidson, in the top SEAS administration helps attract other women to the school.
Many programs have been implemented to foster an environment where women can feel more comfortable working hard while simultaneously raising a family, Davidson said.
These so-called "Family Friendly Policies" - instituted last February by Provost Ronald Daniels and Deputy Provost Janice Bellace - are designed to help tenure-track faculty members balance work and family.
The University typically waits six years to decide whether to offer an associate professor tenure.
In addition, new parents are able to cut their teaching responsibilities in half for one year without forgoing their salary.
But these policies are only the first steps in what officials say will be a long road to equality between male and female professors.
"The opportunity remains unequal for young mothers" trying to get tenure, said Women's Studies professor Janice Madden. "But it's getting better."
