Career Consequences of Women's Unpaid Labor
Jenny Freedman
SO316: Women in Modern Society
April 23, 2022
INTRODUCTION
Women in careers as professors often have many sectors of their job that expand beyond the base duties of a college professor. These expectations are often placed on women based on others’ perceived ability of them to complete service work and grow into a position as department chair. This inhibits their ability to reach the position of full professor. As described by Berheide and Walzer in “Processes and Pathways: Exploring Promotion to Full Professor at Two Liberal Arts Colleges in the United States”, “Perna’s analysis of the 1993 National Study of Postsecondary Faculty confirmed that fewer faculty women than men were tenured full professors at four-year colleges and universities (37 percent vs. 62 percent)” (Berheide and Walzer 2014:180). Since the start of COVID-19, women’s ability to advance their careers has only increased in difficulty and the wage gap has grown. But, what specific obstacles create such a divide between the wages of men and women? In this paper, I will assess how the unpaid labor that women are expected to complete impacts their ability to advance their career.
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
To analyze how women are compensated for their labor, we must first confront and unpack research on the wage gap. The usual explanation for the wage gap between sexes consists of structural discrimination and individual socialization that, in turn, develops sex segregation which creates the wage gap. Solutions for eliminating the wage gap that derive from the usual explanation include comparable worth, affirmative action, the Equal Pay Act of 1963, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Comparable worth tackles the wage problem directly, and promotes valuing women’s work and paying them more. Affirmative action, on the other hand, tackles sex segregation and focuses on the sex distribution within the hiring process. Even with these solutions in place, the wage gap has not decreased significantly and, since COVID, it has risen. I assert that we must consider other societal contributions for the growing wage gap.
In Bringing the Men Back in: Sex Differentiation and the Devaluation of Women's Work, Barbara Reskin asserts that the main cause of the wage gap is men’s propensity the retain privilege through physical segregation and behavioral differentiation (Reskin 1988). Dominant groups have the power to make the rules which determines wages and jobs, but they continue to retain dominance and control. One major concept that upholds the power of men is devaluation of women’s work. Devaluation suggests that women’s work is perceived as soft, easy skills, such as caring for children and the elderly, that are perceived as coming naturally to women. This essentialist view of gender, in turn, affects how women are paid and the positions they are able to achieve. Pre-placed expectations affect compensation, and employers will claim that the jobs themselves do not require skills rather than paying for the skill involved.
In terms of how these concepts affect women in professor positions, the data reveals that, “in 2010-2011, women constituted 42 percent of all full-time faculty at colleges and universities in the United States, and yet they were only 28 percent of full professors” (Berheide and Walzer 2014:178). This displays a clear gender imbalance; however, what can we do to reverse such trends? It is pertinent to state that “a gender bias inherent in practices is not visible at first sight. Discrimination is becoming more and more subtle, and gender competence is now frequently required to detect discriminatory practices” (Wroblewski 2014:309). We must assess the resources that women are given to advance their career to combat the pay inequality that is a result of gender essentialism.
METHODS
At 9:00 AM on Monday April 11, 2022, I interviewed a white, female professor in the art department at Skidmore College. The interview occurred in person in her office and lasted 45 minutes and 42 seconds. I began by inquiring about her discipline, tenure status, and faculty rank, and went on to ask about race and gender identity. For the most part, the questions consisted of assessing the physical and mental tolls that the interviewee faced as a woman, specifically throughout COVID-19, and how her opportunities for career advancement were affected.
ANALYSIS
SO316: Women in Modern Society
April 23, 2022
INTRODUCTION
Women in careers as professors often have many sectors of their job that expand beyond the base duties of a college professor. These expectations are often placed on women based on others’ perceived ability of them to complete service work and grow into a position as department chair. This inhibits their ability to reach the position of full professor. As described by Berheide and Walzer in “Processes and Pathways: Exploring Promotion to Full Professor at Two Liberal Arts Colleges in the United States”, “Perna’s analysis of the 1993 National Study of Postsecondary Faculty confirmed that fewer faculty women than men were tenured full professors at four-year colleges and universities (37 percent vs. 62 percent)” (Berheide and Walzer 2014:180). Since the start of COVID-19, women’s ability to advance their careers has only increased in difficulty and the wage gap has grown. But, what specific obstacles create such a divide between the wages of men and women? In this paper, I will assess how the unpaid labor that women are expected to complete impacts their ability to advance their career.
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
To analyze how women are compensated for their labor, we must first confront and unpack research on the wage gap. The usual explanation for the wage gap between sexes consists of structural discrimination and individual socialization that, in turn, develops sex segregation which creates the wage gap. Solutions for eliminating the wage gap that derive from the usual explanation include comparable worth, affirmative action, the Equal Pay Act of 1963, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Comparable worth tackles the wage problem directly, and promotes valuing women’s work and paying them more. Affirmative action, on the other hand, tackles sex segregation and focuses on the sex distribution within the hiring process. Even with these solutions in place, the wage gap has not decreased significantly and, since COVID, it has risen. I assert that we must consider other societal contributions for the growing wage gap.
In Bringing the Men Back in: Sex Differentiation and the Devaluation of Women's Work, Barbara Reskin asserts that the main cause of the wage gap is men’s propensity the retain privilege through physical segregation and behavioral differentiation (Reskin 1988). Dominant groups have the power to make the rules which determines wages and jobs, but they continue to retain dominance and control. One major concept that upholds the power of men is devaluation of women’s work. Devaluation suggests that women’s work is perceived as soft, easy skills, such as caring for children and the elderly, that are perceived as coming naturally to women. This essentialist view of gender, in turn, affects how women are paid and the positions they are able to achieve. Pre-placed expectations affect compensation, and employers will claim that the jobs themselves do not require skills rather than paying for the skill involved.
In terms of how these concepts affect women in professor positions, the data reveals that, “in 2010-2011, women constituted 42 percent of all full-time faculty at colleges and universities in the United States, and yet they were only 28 percent of full professors” (Berheide and Walzer 2014:178). This displays a clear gender imbalance; however, what can we do to reverse such trends? It is pertinent to state that “a gender bias inherent in practices is not visible at first sight. Discrimination is becoming more and more subtle, and gender competence is now frequently required to detect discriminatory practices” (Wroblewski 2014:309). We must assess the resources that women are given to advance their career to combat the pay inequality that is a result of gender essentialism.
METHODS
At 9:00 AM on Monday April 11, 2022, I interviewed a white, female professor in the art department at Skidmore College. The interview occurred in person in her office and lasted 45 minutes and 42 seconds. I began by inquiring about her discipline, tenure status, and faculty rank, and went on to ask about race and gender identity. For the most part, the questions consisted of assessing the physical and mental tolls that the interviewee faced as a woman, specifically throughout COVID-19, and how her opportunities for career advancement were affected.
ANALYSIS
Emotional Labor
A trend that appeared throughout questioning was additional labor outside of the base responsibilities of associate professor getting in the way of career advancement. My interviewee expressed that her responsibilities as chair majorly affected what she has been able to accomplish her professional goals. In addition to her personal and scholarship time and service, she explained, “I was on CAPT, which is the Committee on Promotion and Tenure, and then 3 years after that I was on it again for 3 year. There’s no time to do any of your own work, so I feel like there was 12 years in there from pre-chair to retirement that I lost a little bit because of service, but I believe in service, I had to weigh that quite a bit… This was a long time ago, but it affected my marriage and it affected my time with my kids. When I was so committed to being here and when I was going up for tenure, every minute that I wasn’t here, I was in the studio trying to make work to get shows and to get tenure.” The pressure to receive tenure while also dealing with personal life and service responsibilities is immense and affects multiple parts of a professor’s life.
Gender Differences in Education
At the time in which the woman I interviewed entered the workforce, there were prominent differences in educational opportunities. Today, this is no longer true, and women seek college education at higher rates than men. This fact, however, does not mean that women full equality has been achieved, as wage gaps require women to complete higher education in order to make the same amount of money as men. While access to education has grown, men are not required to go to college to receive decent wages. My interviewee stated, “there was a time when it was really important to bring more females into the department or into the college, and now the diversity has expanded a great deal… I think that COVID sort of, for most professionals, stopped their journey.” This leads us to consider how female professors’ gender identity and faculty rank intersect, and how these factors impacted their experiences throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
Impact of COVID-19
As Carpenter et al. assessed in “‘I Have No Time for Anything’: Differences in Faculty Research Productivity during the COVID-19 Pandemic”, “The COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on faculty scholarship has been unevenly distributed, accentuating pre-existing disparities in academia by gender and parental status” (Carpenter et al. 2021:10). It is key to isolate the specific effects of COVID-19 on women’s ability to advance in their careers and analyze outside responsibilities and obstacles.
The responses of the professor I interviewed reflected a quote from Carpenter et al.’s research. Within their data, an interviewee stated, “Since I do not have children, the primary consequence of the pandemic has been to eliminate social activities, travel, and anything that might be called ‘fun,’ leaving me nothing to do except do research… I have been more productive than usual” (Carpenter et al. 2021:10). The woman I interviewed mirrored that sentiment in terms of her personal work. She stated, “Now I go into the studio every day, even if I teach, if I’m here 8 hours, I still go home and work in the studio, so I know that’s what I have dreamed about.” On the other hand, she explained the difficulty of teaching that arose, as she had to restructure all of her technical art classes during COVID-19.
It is important to acknowledge that both professionals were white and without children, which provides them privileges that other faculty do not receive. On the other hand, emotionally my interviewee felt extremely isolated; she went on to comment, “what’s interesting is I really love living alone, but it was a different kind of alone. It was an alone where there was fear… I’m almost 70, so getting was very fearful.” The impact on mental and physical health and danger that COVID-19 presents for immunocompromised individuals is another layer of anxiety on top of work.
The responses of the professor I interviewed reflected a quote from Carpenter et al.’s research. Within their data, an interviewee stated, “Since I do not have children, the primary consequence of the pandemic has been to eliminate social activities, travel, and anything that might be called ‘fun,’ leaving me nothing to do except do research… I have been more productive than usual” (Carpenter et al. 2021:10). The woman I interviewed mirrored that sentiment in terms of her personal work. She stated, “Now I go into the studio every day, even if I teach, if I’m here 8 hours, I still go home and work in the studio, so I know that’s what I have dreamed about.” On the other hand, she explained the difficulty of teaching that arose, as she had to restructure all of her technical art classes during COVID-19.
It is important to acknowledge that both professionals were white and without children, which provides them privileges that other faculty do not receive. On the other hand, emotionally my interviewee felt extremely isolated; she went on to comment, “what’s interesting is I really love living alone, but it was a different kind of alone. It was an alone where there was fear… I’m almost 70, so getting was very fearful.” The impact on mental and physical health and danger that COVID-19 presents for immunocompromised individuals is another layer of anxiety on top of work.
Department Climate
As Berheide and Walzer state, “one possible explanation for the gender difference in promotion to full professor is that “institutional structures, policies, and practices that are intended to be gender- and race-neutral may be creating a working environment that is unsupportive, patronizing, and even hostile” (Berheide and Walzer 2014:181). I considered this concept while constructing my interview questions, and inquired about departmental support that my interviewee has experienced. She responded, “I really felt very supported in the department… and I was chair for a long time, so I think they sort of used me for support more because they just did, you know.” It is important to consider how her placement as associate chair and having held the position of chair in the past has formed connections with coworkers in the department and created a supportive environment while also inhibiting her ability to advance to a full professor.
CONCLUSION
Given the aforementioned obstacles that women are thrown which inhibit their career advancement, that leaves us with the question: What solutions are there to create more equitable workplaces? First, we must assess the impact of administration and resources for marginalized identities; this means that “policies aimed at changing gendered practices have to (1) build up gender awareness as well as gender competence and (2) encourage reflexivity as well as agency among all stakeholders involved in a practice” (Wroblewski 2014:309). Carpenter et al. goes on to consider, “A better way to reduce inequity may be to establish an achievement relative to opportunity policy. This approach involves evaluating merit based on the value and breadth of teaching, research, and service taking into account any challenges that faculty encountered” (Carpenter et al. 2021:10). Direct change to policies and procedures can be a step for moving towards a more equitable environment and taking accountability for how to distribution of labor within departments has real career consequences.
Female professors placed in a position as chair often find their career path stalls and responsibilities block opportunities for professional growth, such as advancement to full professor. This concept was displayed in my interviewee’s responses concerning her experiences as art department chair at Skidmore College. The lack of resources was evident, and “chairs play a central role in departments and should be provided sufficient support, training, and rewards to do their jobs well. They along with other faculty members also need transparency around how standards for promotion are operationalized so as to be able to systematically guide colleagues in their progress” (Berheide and Walzer 2014:194). The allocation of time to service, classes, personal life, research, and steps for career advancement should be constantly questioned and discussed with superiors. All in all, providing women with the resources and support for growth has proven to be a great step in increasing access for professional advancement.
CONCLUSION
Given the aforementioned obstacles that women are thrown which inhibit their career advancement, that leaves us with the question: What solutions are there to create more equitable workplaces? First, we must assess the impact of administration and resources for marginalized identities; this means that “policies aimed at changing gendered practices have to (1) build up gender awareness as well as gender competence and (2) encourage reflexivity as well as agency among all stakeholders involved in a practice” (Wroblewski 2014:309). Carpenter et al. goes on to consider, “A better way to reduce inequity may be to establish an achievement relative to opportunity policy. This approach involves evaluating merit based on the value and breadth of teaching, research, and service taking into account any challenges that faculty encountered” (Carpenter et al. 2021:10). Direct change to policies and procedures can be a step for moving towards a more equitable environment and taking accountability for how to distribution of labor within departments has real career consequences.
Female professors placed in a position as chair often find their career path stalls and responsibilities block opportunities for professional growth, such as advancement to full professor. This concept was displayed in my interviewee’s responses concerning her experiences as art department chair at Skidmore College. The lack of resources was evident, and “chairs play a central role in departments and should be provided sufficient support, training, and rewards to do their jobs well. They along with other faculty members also need transparency around how standards for promotion are operationalized so as to be able to systematically guide colleagues in their progress” (Berheide and Walzer 2014:194). The allocation of time to service, classes, personal life, research, and steps for career advancement should be constantly questioned and discussed with superiors. All in all, providing women with the resources and support for growth has proven to be a great step in increasing access for professional advancement.
Works Cited
Berheide, Catherine W. and Susan Walzer. 2014. “Processes and Pathways: Exploring Promotion to Full Professor at Two Liberal Arts Colleges in the United States.” Pp. 177-98 in Gender Transformation in the Academy. Vol. 19, Advances in Gender Research, edited by V. Demos, C. W. Berheide, and M. T. Segal. Bingley, UK: Emerald Publishing Group Limited.
Carpenter, Megan A., David A. Cotter, and Catherine White Berheide. 2021. “‘I Have No Time for Anything’: Differences in Faculty Research Productivity during the COVID-19 Pandemic.” The ADVANCE Journal 2(3):1-10. https://doi.org/10.5399/osu/advjrnl.2.3.3.
Reskin, Barbara F. 1988. “Bringing the Men Back in: Sex Differentiation and the Devaluation of Women's Work.” Gender & Society 2(1):58-81.
Wroblewski, Angela. 2014. “Gender Bias in Appointment Procedures for Full Professors: Challenges to Changing Traditional and Seemingly Gender Neutral Practices.” Pp. 291-313 in Gender Transformation in the Academy. Vol. 19, Advances in Gender Research, edited by V. Demos, C. W. Berheide, and M. T. Segal. Bingley, UK: Emerald Publishing Group Limited.