MIT Hosts Roundtable on Gender Disparities for Female Professors in Higher Education - Brief Article

Black Issues in Higher Education, Feb 15, 2001

CAMBRIDGE, MASS.

A roundtable on how best to ensure women professors experience the same opportunities, recognition and rewards as their male counterparts was held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The decision to host a roundtable discussion on gender equity in higher education was the result of MIT data that showed female faculty in its school of science had been seriously discriminated against. Dr. Charles Vest, the president of MIT, acknowledged in 1999 that, based on the data presented to him, this was indeed the case.

One of the topics discussed was what strategies could be applied to increase opportunities to women faculty in different disciplines and different kinds of institutions. Another issue focused on the attributes of a profession that succeeds in according opportunities for professional growth and advancement to women in the same degree it does to men.

The roundtable, which was held late last month, was sponsored by the American Association of University Women Legal Advocacy Fund and the Knight Higher Education Collaborative.

The roundtable outcomes will be published in Policy Perspectives, a publication of the Knight Collaboration, in the upcoming months.

Jacqueline E. Woods, AAUW executive director, says that approximately 30 male and female presidents, deans, senior faculty and administrators from both public and private institutions attended the two-day event.