Although these concerns change over time, as women make small but important steps in improving the quality of their lives, the Status of Women Committee is essential, because many of the same issues that prompted its creation continue to exist. At USF, only 20 percent of the tenured faculty are women and, in some departments, there are no women at all which has the potential to create a hostile environment for students and largely female office staff. Women make up a larger proportion of the untenured faculty, indicating efforts to recruit women in recent years but also underscoring the different status of women within the faculty. There are also more women in positions that do not lead to tenure, such as Visiting Professors and Lecturers. These women have lower salaries, less freedom in the classes they can teach and less opportunity to pursue funded research within the university.
Women face disparities in other parts of the university as well.
These disparities exist at the same time that USF enjoys a growing number of women students, at least at the undergraduate level. We hope that USF will continue to provide and to expand mentoring programs for women. One Year Later and Kaleidoscope. The co-chairs of the committee also attended meetings organized by Renu Khator and Denys Blell for all multicultural groups on campus. Members of the Status of Women Committee organized and coordinated events for the Women's Awareness Celebration, March 3-6, 1997.