Abstract
Why should a volume on social justice and the university include a chapter about social justice inside the university and for professors? We think there are two reasons. First, many of the intellectuals who have the freedom and luxury to think and write about social justice are university faculty. Tenured faculty live privileged lives within the academy. It is important that we clean up our own backyards as well as focus much needed attention on inequality in the rest of the world. To this end, we will use our space in this chapter to carve out one little question about the justice of universities: How far have universities come in their attempt to become nonsexist, providing faculty with more egalitarian workplaces? The second reason why a book on social justice should include a focus on universities, is that there has been a US governmental initiative to create “institutional gender transformation” on many university campuses. The National Science Foundation (NSF) has been funding ADVANCE grants to help incorporate women into fields in which they are under-represented in science, technology, engineering, and math (the STEM disciplines). Millions of dollars have been spent on gender transformation attempts on campuses around the country. We see this as a sort of test of the possibilities to change workplaces and organizations in feminist directions. How well do we know how to make social change in universities so that they become more egalitarian, even in only one way for a class of privileged workers? When we explicitly try, and devote many resources to the effort, can we move universities toward gender equity?
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Acker, Joan (1990) “Hierarchies, Jobs, Bodies: A Theory of Gendered Organizations”, Gender & Society 4, 2, 139–158.
Avent-Holt, Dustin, and Donald Tomaskovic-Devey (2012) “Relational Inequality: Gender Earnings Inequality in U.S. and Japanese Manufacturing Plants in the Early 1980s”, Social Forces 91, 1, 157–80.
Banerjee, Pallavi (2013) “Paradoxes of Patriarchy: Contradicting Experiences of South Asian Women in Ethnic Labor Markets”, in Immigrant Women Workers in the Neoliberal Age: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on an Undenepresented Labor Force (Urbana-Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press), 96–116.
Battilana, Julie, Bernard Leca, and Eva Boxenbaum (2009) “How Actors Change Institutions: Towards a Theory of Institutional Entrepreneur ship”, Academy of Management Annals 3, 1, 65–107.
Bilimoria, Diana, and Xiangfen Liang (2012) Gender Equity in Science and Engineering: Advancing Change in Higher Education (New York: Routledge).
Campbell, M. and Phyllis Moen (1992) “Job-Family Role Strain among Single Mothers of Preschoolers”, Family Relations 42, 205–11.
Carrell, Scott E., Marianne E. Page, and James F. West (2010) “Sex and Science: How Professor Gender Perpetuates the Gender Gap”, The Quarterly Journal of Economics 125, 3, 1101–44.
Chicago Biomedical Consortium (2014) “Homepage”, Available: http://chicagobiomedicalconsortium.org/(Accessed February 19, 2014).
Coltrane, Scott L. (2009) Sociology of Marriage and Family (Independence, KY: Cengage).
Coontz, Stephanie (1992) The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap (New York: Basic Books).
DiMaggio, Paul J. (1988) “Interest and Agency in Institutional Theory”, in L. Zucker (ed.) Institutional Patterns and Organizations (Cambridge, MA: Ballinger).
Drago, Robert W. (2007) Striking a Balance: Work, Family Life (Boston: Dollars & Sense).
Drago, Robert W., C. Colbeck, D. Stauffer, A. Pirretti, K. Burkum, and T. Habasevich (2006) “The Avoidance of Bias Against Caregiving: The Case of Academic Faculty”, American Behavioral Scientist 49, 1222–47.
Georgia Institution of Technology (2007) “Final Report: October 1, 2001-December 31, 2006”, Available: http://www.advance.gatech.edu/archive/files/GT ADVANCEfinalreport2007.doc (Accessed February 19, 2014).
Gerson, Kathleen (1993) No Man’ Land: Men’ Changing Commitments to Family and Work (New York: Basic Books).
Gerson, Kathleen, and Jerry A. Jacobs (2005) The Time Divide: Work, Family, and Gender Inequality (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press).
Hochschild, Arlie Russell (1989) The Second Shift: Working Parents and the Revolution at Home (New York: Viking Penguin).
Holmes, Mary Anne (2012) “Working Together”, Nature 489, 327–8.
Holmes, Mary Anne, and Suzanne O’Connell (2007) “Leaks in the Pipeline: Why do Women Remain Curiously Absent from the Ranks of Academia?”, Nature 446, 346.
Holmes, Mary Anne, Suzanne O’Connell, Connie Frey and Lois Ongley (2008) “Gender Imbalance in U.S. Geoscience Academia”, Nature Geoscience 1, 2, 79–82.
Luna, Gayle, Catherine Medina, and Sharon Gorman (2010) “Academic Reality’ show’: Presented by Women Faculty of Color”, Advancing Women in Leadership Journal 30, 11, Available at: http://advancingwomen.com/awl/awl_wordpress/ volume-30-2010/
Mason, Mary Ann, and Marc Goulden (2002) “Do Babies Matter? The Effect of Family Formation on the Lifelong Careers of Academic Men and Women”, Academe, 88, 6, 21–27.
Mason, Mary Ann, Nicholas H. Wolfinger, and Marc Goulden (2013) Do Babies Matter? Gender and Family in the Ivory Tower, (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press).
Moen, Phyllis (1991) “Transitions in Midlife: Women’ Work and Family Roles in the 1970s”, Journal of Marriage and the Family 53, 135–50.
National Academies (2007) Rising above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future (Washington, DC: National Academies Press).
National Science Foundation “ADVANCE: Increasing the Participation and Advancement of Women in Academic Science and Engineering Careers (ADVANCE)”, Available: http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5383 (Accessed February 19, 2014).
New Mexico State University (2009) “ADVANCE Institutional Transformation: Final Report”, Available: http://www.advance.nmsu.edu/Documents/PDF/ann-rpt-09.pdf
Payne, Stephanie C., Allison L. Cook, and Ismael Diaz (2012) “Understanding Childcare Satisfaction and Its Effect on Workplace Outcomes: The Convenience Factor and the Mediating Role of Work-Family Conflict”, Journal of Occupational & Organizational Psychology 85, 2, 225–44.
Rhoads, Steven E., and Christopher H. Rhoads (2012) “Gender Roles and Infant/Toddler Care: Male and Female Professors on the Tenure Track”, Journal of Social, Evolutionary and Cultural Psychology 6, 1, 13–31.
Risman, Barbara J. (1998) Gender Vertigo: American Families in Transition, (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press).
Risman, Barbara J. (2004) “Gender As a Social Structure: Theory Wrestling with Activism”, Gender & Society 18, 4, 429–50.
Risman, Barbara J., and Georgiann Davis (2012) “From Sex Roles to Gender Structure”, Sociopedia.isa, 1–16.
Schiebinger, Londa L., Andrea Davies Henderson, and Shannon K. Gilmartin (2008) Dual-Career Academic Couples: What Universities Need to Know (Stanford: Stanford University Press).
Spalter-Roth, Roberta, and Nicole Van Vooren (2012) “Mothers in Pursuit of Ideal Academic Careers”, American Sociological Association, Available: http://www.asanet.org/ documents/research/docs/Mothers_Ideal_Acad_Careers_2012.pdf (Accessed February 19, 2014).
University of Alabama, Birmingham (2009) “UAB ADVANCE Institutional Transformation 2009 Annual Report”, Available: http://www.uab.edu/images/advimg/pdf/ 2008-Annual-Report5-27-08.pdf (Accessed February 19, 2014).
University of California Irvine (2007) “UCI ADVANCE Program Fifth Year Report”, Available: http://advance.uci.edu/media/Reports/Fifth%20Year%20Report%20Final. pdf (Accessed June 15, 2012).
University of Illinois at Chicago (2011) “WISEST: Women in Science and Engineering System Transformation—Year 5 Annual Report: August 1, 2010-May 1, 2011”, Available: http://www.uic.edu/depts/oaa/wisest/docs/FINAL%20NSF%20YR%205% 20ANNUAL%20Report%2004%2030%20201 l%20no%20budget.pdf (Accessed June 15, 2012).
University of Illinois at Chicago (2012) “Faculty Affairs Human Resources: Policies and Procedures”, Available: http://www.uic.edu/depts/oaa/policies_proced. html (Accessed June 15, 2012).
University of Michigan Ann Arbor (2006) “Year-End Report for ADVANCE Institutional Transformation Project—Year 5: December 2006”, Available: http://www.advance.racldiam.umich.edu/PUBLIC_Deceinber_2006_Year_End_Report.pdf (Accessed June 15, 2012).
University of Michigan Ann Arbor (2007) “Assessing the Academic Work Environment for Science and Engineering and Social Science Faculty at the University of Michigan in 2006: Gender, Race, and Discipline in Department-and University-Related Climate Factors”, Available: http://www.advance.rackham.umich.edu/ADV-FacuityClimate-Rpt 1-final. pdf (Accessed Jime 15, 2012).
University of Michigan Ann Arbor (2008) “Assessing the Academic Work Environment for Science and Engineering and Social Science Faculty at the University of Michigan in 2006: Gender, Race, and Discipline in Retention—Relevant Career Experiences Executive Summary”, Available: http://www.advance.rackham.umich.edu/ADV-FacultyClimate-Rpt4es-final.pdf (Accessed June 15, 2012).
University of Texas El Paso (2008) “Year End Report: September 1, 2007-August 31, 2008”, Available: http://academics.utep.edu/Portals/1224/Final%20 Version%202007–2008%20Website%20Report.pdf (Accessed June 15, 2012).
University of Washington (2012) “ADVANCE Resource Library”, Available: http:// advance.washington.edu/apps/resources/ (Accessed June 15, 2012).
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (2010) “AdvanceVT Final Report.” Available: http://www.advance.vt.edu/documents/nsf_reports/nsf_final_report.pdf (Accessed February 19, 2014).
Williams, Joan C. (1999) Unbending Gender: Why Family and Work Conflict and What To Do about It (New York: Oxford University Press).
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2014 Barbara J. Risman and Timothy Adkins
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Risman, B., Adkins, T. (2014). The Goal of Gender Transformation in American Universities: Toward Social Justice for Women in the Academy. In: Shefner, J., Dahms, H.F., Jones, R.E., Jalata, A. (eds) Social Justice and the University. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137289384_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137289384_5
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-45013-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-28938-4
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social Sciences CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)