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##  Women and Minority Faculty in the Academic Workplace: Recruitment,              Retention, and Academic Culture. ERIC Digest.                                

Institutions of higher education have attempted to diversify their              faculty by recruiting women and minorities. Those efforts, however,             have been implemented without under-standing how women and minority             faculty fit in an institution dominated by men, especially White                men. In particular, recruitment has taken place without an                      understanding of the social forces that shape the professional                  socialization and workplace satisfaction of women and minority                  faculty. The use of affirmative action in academia to increase the              representation of women and minority faculty, for example, has often            resulted in workers' perception that they are tokens or outcomes of             reverse discrimination practiced on White men (Delgado, 1991;                   Niemann, 1999). 
By no means is the term minority faculty in this              monograph used to identify a homogeneous population. Rather, the                term is used as a descriptive category to discuss the workplace                 experiences of non-White faculty. As such, the term minority faculty            includes Latinos, Blacks, Asians, and American Indians. It is not               possible to examine the workplace experiences of each minority                  group, given the limits of the research literature. In particular,              the research literature on minority faculty focuses primarily on the            experiences of Latinos and Blacks. The research literature does not             so much omit Asian and American Indian faculty from study as it                 recognizes its limitations in making substantive comparisons between            minority groups (Pavel et al., 1998; Yen, 1996). That is, more                  information is simply available on Black and Latino faculty than on             Asian or American Indian faculty. As a result, comparisons between              the groups run the risk of being conceptually weak, given a lack of             data and information for some of the groups. In an attempt to                   address the need for substantive comparisons in the minority faculty            population, this monograph examines the relative differences between            minority groups in the faculty population when the data permit                  comparisons. 
The term women faculty, on the one hand, is a                    descriptive category that includes women's experiences in the                   workplace. The term is used to discuss and contrast the academic                experiences of women and men faculty in the workplace. On the other             hand, the term is not homogeneous in its use; in particular, the                term is not designed to bury the workplace experiences of minority              women faculty. To this end, the workplace experiences of minority               and White women faculty are compared and contrasted to identify                 commonalities and differences between them. In this manner, the                 understanding of how minority status and gender are associated with             the workplace experiences of minority women faculty is                          enhanced (Aguirre et al., 1994; Calasanti & Smith, 1998). WHAT IS             THE STATUS OF WOMEN AND MINORITY FACULTY IN ACADEMIA?The number             of women and minority faculty in higher education has been                      increasing, with the implementation of affirmative action                       initiatives in higher education serving as a vehicle for increasing             their representation. Despite the increased numbers, however, women             and minority faculty remain underrepresented in higher education                relative to their numbers in the U.S. population. Moreover, despite             appreciable gains in the number of Ph.D. degrees earned by women and            minorities, their proportionate representation in the U.S. faculty              population has remained unchanged Aguirre, 1995; Granger,                       1993). WHAT ARE THE ORGANIZATIONAL FEATURES OF THE ACADEMIC                   WORKPLACE?The academic workplace is characterized in popular                thinking as a place of enlightened thought and discourse that is                immune to influences from the outside world. Its perceived immunity             to the outside world has resulted in a perception that the academic             workplace is free of conflict and stress. The reality, however, is              that the academic workplace is characterized by group struggles over            the definition of knowledge and about what it means to be a                     knowledgeable person. To survive in the academic workplace, faculty             members must align themselves with and participate in institutional             networks that define one's position in a knowledge                              hierarchy (Scheff, 1995; Smith, 1990). HOW ARE WOMEN AND MINORITY             FACULTY TREATED IN THE ACADEMIC WORKPLACE?The academic workplace            has been described as chilly and alienating for women and minority              faculty. On the one hand, women and minority faculty find themselves            burdened with heavy teaching and service responsibilities that                  constrain their opportunity to engage in research and publication.              On the other hand, women and minority faculty are expected to assume            and perform institutional roles that allow higher education                     institutions to pursue diversity on campus. But those roles are                 ignored in the faculty reward system, especially the awarding of                tenure. The academic workplace is thus chilly and alienating for                women and minority faculty because they are ascribed a peripheral               role in the academic workplace and are expected to perform roles                that are in conflict with expectations (Johnsrud & Des Jarlais,                 1994; Wyche & Graves, 1992). WHAT BARRIERS TO PROFESSIONAL                    SOCIALIZATION DO WOMEN AND MINORITY

FACULTY EXPERIENCE IN THE                ACADEMIC WORKPLACE?Women and minority faculty are less satisfied            than White male faculty with the workplace because women and                    minority faculty perceive themselves to be the victims of salary                inequities and a biased reward system. Women and minority faculty               are also perceived in the academic workplace as less competent than             White male faculty. As a result, White male faculty often discredit             feminist and minority research. Women and minority faculty face                 barriers in the academic workplace that question their legitimacy as            academics and their access to institutional resources and rewards               that promote professional socialization (Aguirre, 1987; Johnsrud,               1993). WHY DO WE NEED TO STUDY THE ACADEMIC WORKPLACE FOR                     WOMEN

AND MINORITY FACULTY?An examination of the academic                workplace for women and minority faculty becomes imperative if one              considers that demographic predictions suggest that the U.S.                    workforce will become increasingly diverse in the 21st century. The             two populations most likely to determine diversity in the workplace             in the 21st century are women and minorities. An increased                      representation of women and minorities in the workplace has                     implications for institutions of higher e education, especially at a            time when it appears that faculty pools are shrinking as the demand             for new faculty is increasing. As a result, one may speculate that              women and minorities will increase their representation in the                  faculty population, thus providing institutions of higher education             with an enhanced opportunity to diversify their faculty ranks. If               women and minority faculty are going to increase their                          representativeness in higher education, it is necessary to examine              the academic workplace to understand how women and minority faculty             fit in the academic culture (Aguirre,                                           2000). REFERENCESAguirre, A., Jr. (2000). Academic                        storytelling: A critical race theory story of affirmative action.               Sociological Perspectives, 43, 319-339. -----. (1995). The status of            minority faculty in academe.  Equity and Excellence in Education,               28, 63-68. -----. (1987). An interpretative analysis of Chicano                 faculty in academe. Social Science Journal, 24, 71-81. 
Aguirre,               A., Jr., Hernandez, A., and Martinez, R. (1994). Perceptions of the             workplace: Focus on minority  women faculty. Initiatives, 56,                   41-50. 
Calasanti, T., and Smith, J. (1998). A critical evaluation             of the experiences of women and minority faculty:  Some implications            for occupational research. Current Research on Occupations and                  Professions, 10,  239-258. 
Delgado, R (1991). Affirmative action              as a majoritarian device, or, Do you really want to be a role model?            Michigan Law Review, 89, 1222-1231. 
Granger, M. (1993). A review              of the literature on the status of women and minorities in the                  professoriate in higher education. Journal of School Leadership,                3,121-135. 
Johnsrud, L. (1993). Women and minority faculty                    experiences: Defining and responding to diverse realities. New                  Directions for Teaching and Learning,53, 3-16. 
Johnsrud, L., and              Des Jarlais, C. (1994). Barriers to tenure for women and minorities.            Review of Higher  Education, 17, 335-353. 
Niemann, Y. (1999). The             making of a token: A case study of stereotype threat, stigma,                   racism, and tokenism in academia. Frontiers, 20, 111-126. 
Pavel,              D. M., Skinner, R., Cahalan, M., Tippiconnic, J., and Stein,                    W. (1998). American Indians and Alaska Natives in postsecondary                 education. Washington,  D.C.:  Department of Education, Office of               Educational Research and Improvement. 
Scheff, T. (1995). Academic             gangs. Crime, Law and Social Change, 23, 157-162. 
Smith,                      P. (1990). Killing the spirit: Higher education in America. New                 York: Viking. 
Wyche, K., and Graves, S. (1992). Minority women in             academia: Access and barriers to professional participation.                    Psychology of Women Quarterly, 16, 429-437. 
Yen, A. (1996). A                 statistical analysis of Asian Americans and the affirmative action              hiring of law school faculty. Asian Law Journal, 3,                             39-54. 
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This             publication was partially prepared with funding from the Office of              Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education,             under contract no. RR-93-00-0036. The opinions expressed here do not            necessarily reflect the positions or policies of OERI or the                    department.  Permission is granted to copy and distribute this                  ERIC-HE Digest.                                                              **Title:** Women and Minority Faculty in the Academic Workplace: Recruitment,              Retention, and Academic Culture. ERIC Digest.                                **Note:** For the full report, see HE 033 595. Prepared in cooperation with               Jossey-Bass Publishers.                                                      **Document Type:** Information Analyses---ERIC Information Analysis Products (IAPs) (071); Information Analyses---ERIC Digests (Selected) in Full Text (073); **Target Audience:** Practitioners, Teachers                                                      **Available From:** ERIC Clearinghouse on Higher Education, One Dupont Circle, Suite                630, Washington, DC 20036-1183. Tel: 800-956-7739 (Toll Free).               **Descriptors:**  College Faculty,  Diversity (Faculty), Higher Education,  Minority             Group Teachers,  Racial Discrimination,  Sex Discrimination,  Women             Faculty                                                                      **Identifiers:** ERIC Digests                                                                 
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